Turkey's Tosyali Holdings, which recently launched the world's largest (2.5 million mt/year) DRI plant at its Algerian steel works, started rebar exports from Algeria as of December, Mete Sahin, export manager of Tosyali Algerie, told S&P Global Platts Wednesday.
"We have sold 10,000 mt of rebar to the US last month," the manager said adding that they are targeting both Algerian, African and other export markets.
Tosyali's Algerian steel investment is an important step for Algeria in becoming a steel exporter from a net importer.
Tosyali started rebar production in Algeria in the second half of 2013 with a capacity of 1.2 million mt. The company's rebar production capacity currently reaches 3.2 million mt/year and it is also producing wire rod with a capacity of 600,000 mt/year.
Tosyali Algerie will reach 8 million mt of production capacity in Algeria, when all of the four phases of the investment plan are completed.
The company also successfully finished the trial production at its new 250,000 mt/year Algeria pipe plant. The company's investments in Algeria already total $4 billion and will reach $6 billion upon completion.
Tosyali is also planning to begin to build a new steel mill in another African country, Senegal, in the coming months which would make it one of Africa's largest producers and exporters.
Tosyali also intends to build a new iron ore based plant in Turkey in the coming years, as part of its long-term investment plan. The company is also planning to announce a new value-added steel investment in Turkey in the coming months, Tosyali said.
Furthermore, Tosyali is planning to become one of world's top 20 steel producers by 2020.
