TEHRAN: Iran’s Esfahan Steel Company is ready to ship its first rebar cargo to the UK, a company source told S&P Global Platts. The deal for 5,000 tons at $505/ton FOB southern port was concluded in October. The cargo is due in late January 2018 and is now ready to be shipped,” the company source said on Tuesday. Additional contracts are nearly finalized for the same destination, while another cargo is under negotiation for Scotland,” he added. This comes after ESCO became the first Iranian steelmaker to obtain UK Cares certification, confirming its billet and rebar conforms to BS ESCO is Iran’s largest producer of long products and the only Iranian steel producer using blast furnaces of which it has three. However, one of the furnaces (with 1 million tons/year capacity) is idle as a result of low demand in the domestic market. About 50% of the company’s output were exported in the first nine months of the current Iranian year (ending March 20) to Belgium, the Netherlands, Sudan, Egypt, Thailand, Pakistan, Oman, the UAE and other parts of the Middle East, according to the company.
