Page 56 - IRANRptFeb22

Cement plants in Iran ‘storing mazut as alternative fuel amid power cut anxieties’
Iran’s iron ore discoveries ‘grow by billion tonnes in six years’
According to the "Vision Plan" of the Islamic Republic, by 2025, Iran’s total steel production capacity should reach 55mn tonnes/year, with the export volume expected to reach 10-15mn tonnes.
Cement plants in Iran have started storing mazut as an alternative fuel amid anxieties that natural gas flow shortages in the country could lead to power cuts hitting industry, local press reports have this week quoted Iranian Cement Industry Association secretary Abdolreza Sheikhan as saying.
Mazut is a heavy, low quality “dirty” fuel oil left over after gasoline and lighter components are evaporated from crude oil.
Sheikhan reportedy noted that electricity outages during the summer led to a cement shortage on the Iranian market and increased cement prices. Simultaneous power and gas outages in the upcoming winter might mean the Iranian cement industry struggling to meet demand in Iran for cement, he was also quoted as saying.
Iran’s 62 cement companies produced 32.4mn tonnes of cement in the first half of the current Persian year (March 21-September 22), down 9.2% y/y, Global Cement reported on November 2. In the last Persian year, production was 68.3mn tonnes, with 11mn tonnes exported. Domestic cement consumption was 65mn tonnes, cited official statistics showed.
Around one billion tonnes of additional iron ore reserves have been identified in Iran over the past six years, according to the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (Imidro), as reported by Tehran’s Financial Tribune.
Total iron ore reserves reportedly stand at 2.74bn tonnes.
The newspaper report added that Imidro said explorations for more reserves were currently under way in 30 provinces, across 107 zones spread over 660,000 square kilometres.
9.1.12 Renewable energy sector news
IIran sets aside $40bn in reserves for nuclear power construction programme
Iran’s state budget draft for the next Persian calendar year (starts late March 2022) sets aside the equivalent of $40bn in reserves for the construction of nuclear power plants, Mehr News Agency reported on December 14.
Iran boasts the 1,000 MW Bushehr nuclear power plant—the first such civilian facility in the Middle East—that was connected to the grid in 2013, and the drought experienced by the country this year, its worst in 50 years, and climate change considerations appear to have brought home to officials the need to accelerate the construction of more such power plants. Iranians endured substantial power cuts during the hottest months as a lack of rainfall meant much of Iran’s hydroelectricity capacity could not be deployed.
Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, was quoted as saying by Mehr that the construction of additional nuclear power plant capacity would likely begin in the next Persian year. Projects would be financed with foreign investment, domestic financing, government resources and the acquisition of fixed assets, he said. An executive funding plan is to be prepared by the AEOI in cooperation with the Planning and Budgetary Organization (PBO) and the Ministry of Finance and Economy. The status of US sanctions applied to Iran will clearly be a consideration where foreign funding is concerned.
Iran’s nuclear industry, which started making a name for itself in the 1970s,
56 IRAN Country Report February 2022 www.intellinews.com