Moon Iron & Steel Company (Misco) has signed an agreement with Sohar Port and Freezone for land and construction of a 700m quay wall. This will facilitate the handling of direct reduced iron feedstock imports.

The firm commissioned its 1.2 million tonnes/year capacity electric arc furnace-based billet plant and 1.1m t/y rebar mill last year (see Kallanish passim). The Misco steelworks is partly owned by Gulf Investment Corporation, Oman Development Fund and the Sultan Special Forces Pension Fund. Its location of Sohar is home to 2m t/y crude steelmaker Jindal Shadeed, 600,000 t/y crude steel capacity Sohar Steel, and re-roller Al Jazeera Steel, as well as Vale’s 9m t/y iron ore pelletising plant.

Misco is mulling a future expansion into hot rolled coil production, following in the footsteps of Emirates Steel in neighbouring United Arab Emirates. However, the plan is still only in the discussion phase.