Turkish group of companies OYAK and Japan’s JFE Steel plan to invest in an iron ore enrichment and pelletizing facility in Hekimhan in Turkey.
Suleyman Savas Erdem, general manager of OYAK said on August 4 that the new plant would cover a significant part of the current needs for the product in Turkey.
The new plant will produce 3mn mt of pellets per year to meet an estimated demand for 6.2mn mt of the grade in the country. The project is likely to cost a total of $750mn, with the construction and installations in the plant expected to get completed over the next 55 months, according to a media statement by OYAK.
In 2019, OYAK invested $1.4bn in mining and metallurgy. The company started operations at its new galvanizing line and R&D center last year and became a major shareholder of Finnish armor steel producer Miilux OY. In addition to its plants in Finland and Poland OYAK plans to build a facility in Turkey to meet the country’s annual need of 17,000-20,000mt for armor steel.
According to Erdem, the company will continue to increase its investments in its current projects and consider new ones to strengthen domestic production and increase foreign capital flows into Turkey. He added that the company had realized 2.7pc of Turkey’s total exports in 2019 despite a challenging year.