El Hadjar complex (Annaba Province) – Algeria – will be allowed to import iron ore in case local production is insufficient, with the aim of solving the problem of supplying raw materials, according to Minister of Industry Farhat Ait Ali Braham in a press interview published on Sunday.
Mr. Ait Ali Braham said in an interview published in the monthly magazine “The Economic People” in its first issue (November 2020): “We have taken a decision to supply El Hadjar compound with iron ore and import, if necessary, until the Al-Wanda and Boukhadra miners can support it with 3 million tons.” He added that the boat “will continue to acquire local iron ore from the mines, but will use imported raw materials to achieve sufficiency.”
On this basis, the Minister ordered the import of raw materials from abroad to cover the needs of the company , which has a production and transfer capacity estimated at 4 million tons annually.
This process is considered “normal for any industrial complex of a commercial and profitable nature,” according to the minister, who pointed out in the same context that the cost of iron ore is “not exorbitant,” as its price ranges between $60 and $80 per ton, while the price of converted iron ranges between $390 and $400 per ton.
“If we had allowed El Hadjar complex from the beginning to supply itself with raw materials, we would have saved a lot of hard currency instead of allowing other compaies to import semi-finished materials converted made by the Al-Hajjar itself.”
