KRG inaugurates $100 million steel factory in Erbil, promises job creation

KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani (center) tours the Med Steel factory compound in Erbil alongside the investor and public officials, May 18, 2021. (Photo: KRG)
KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani (center) tours the Med Steel factory compound in Erbil alongside the investor and public officials, May 18, 2021. (Photo: KRG)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s government on Tuesday inaugurated a $100 million steel factory in Erbil province that it estimates will create at least 1,000 new jobs.

Prime Minister Masrour Barzani alongside Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) ministers and a number of local and foreign investors cut the ribbon of the newly constructed project, named Med Steel, in a ceremony in Erbil.

The project, which has an annual production capacity of 350,000 tons of steel, is built on an approximately 40,000 square meter site southwest of the Kurdish capital.

“This factory can provide its services not only for the Kurdistan Region, but the whole of Iraq and other countries,” Barzani said during the ceremony.

The premier reiterated his cabinet’s support for the private sector to help diversify the Kurdish economy and reduce its dependence on hydrocarbons as a primary source of revenue.

“We are doing our best to build the infrastructure needed to put the Kurdistan Region on the map of developed countries,” he said.

The factory itself is self-sufficient and does not rely on public electricity. It can generate up to 52 megawatts of electricity on-site daily.

“The Kurdistan Region is rich in minerals and natural resources, but they have not been exploited yet,” Barzani said.

According to the project’s investors, Med Steel is the biggest steel factory in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

Editing by Joanne Stocker-Kelly