El Hadjar Steel Complex Targets 800,000-Tonne Rebar Capacity

The Algerian Ministry of Industry has initiated a comprehensive plan to rebuild and modernize the El Hadjar steel complex. This strategic initiative, highlighted by Minister Yahia Bachir and senior officials Mekdad Aggoun and Lotfi El Alem, aims to establish El Hadjar as a cornerstone for the nation's heavy industry development, leveraging its existing industrial base and potential. The roadmap for this transformation focuses on financial restructuring, renewing the industrial model, and technology transfer.

A primary priority of the plan is a thorough financial cleanup, involving a joint study with the Ministry of Finance to clarify the complex's financial standing and determine necessary investments for its revival. This addresses previous challenges such as accumulated debts. The modernization effort will also introduce new electric furnaces to progressively replace the coke-based production model, aligning output with national energy and mineral resources to achieve cost reduction and produce high-value-added steel.

A new organizational structure for the complex involves separating upstream and downstream activities through the creation of two joint ventures operating under Sider, the state-owned managing company. These entities will concentrate on iron ore processing and reduced iron production, and steel production and commercialization, respectively. This structure is intended to attract specialized partners, mobilize financing, and share industrial and technological risks.

Furthermore, the plan incorporates the Berrahal rolling mill, now under Sider, to boost concrete rebar production with an announced capacity of 800,000 tonnes, rapidly re-injecting productive capacities into the national steel system. International collaboration forms a crucial component of this revival, with ongoing negotiations targeting European and Asian partnerships to support the comprehensive modernization.