Qatar, Algeria to launch steel project in January: newspaper

Qatar and Algeria will begin constructing their joint steel and iron plant in January and production will start on schedule in 2017, a Qatar newspapers said on Monday.

“Informed sources said the execution of the project will begin in January 2015 and the plant will start production on schedule in 2017,” 'Sharq' Arabic language daily said.

It said the $1.2-billion project would be based in the industrial Bellara zone in the eastern Algerian Mediterranean port of Jijel and that it would initially produce two million tonnes of steel and iron per year.

The report said the project was a result of a memorandum of understanding signed in Doha in 2013 between state-controlled Qatar Steel and Algeria’s national steel and iron company Industrial Park Cedar.

It said Cedar controls 51 per cent of the project while 49 per cent is held by Qatar Steel, which is owned by Industries Qatar, an affiliate of the government-owned Qatar Petroleum.

The report said production would be marketed locally to help Algeria reduce its soaring steel and iron imports, which exceeded $10 billion for the first time in 2011.
After signing the agreement for the joint venture, Qatari and Algerian officials said production could eventually reach five million tonnes annually

 

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