The iron industrial complex began to produce corrugated bars for construction and wire rod for the manufacture of nails, screws and nuts.
In mid-August, the operational tests of the Mutún power plant will begin, in the municipality of Puerto Suárez, in Santa Cruz, and with this, six of the seven plants that make up the Steel Complex will be commissioned and inaugurated in September with production. of iron.
The president of the Mutún Steel Company (ESM), Jorge Alvarado, reported that tests of low voltage equipment are currently being carried out; Once that phase is completed, the power plant will begin operating.
"With this power plant we will be able to carry out the tests of the high voltage equipment, this is planned to be carried out until mid and end of August, so that in September we will start up the six plants that will be ready until the end of August, and the seven plants that make up the entire steel complex,” explained the Mutún executive.
Until August of this year, the completion of six of the seven plants that make up this project is expected: the Concentration Plant, the Pelletization Plant, the Steel Plant, the Rolling Plant, the Power Plant Plant and the Auxiliary Plants , which will begin operating in September.
The Power Plant Plant will run on natural gas and will require less than one million cubic meters per day (MMm3/d), which is why - Alvarado said - Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) guaranteed the supply of energy.
“The gas is guaranteed, YPFB has guaranteed so that there will be no problem with the gas supply. The amount of gas that we are going to use is in the range of 700,000 cubic meters and one million cubic meters,” he explained.
INAUGURATION IN SEPTEMBER
The Government plans to inaugurate the iron industrial complex in September, the anniversary month of the department of Santa Cruz (September 24) and begin producing corrugated bars for construction and wire rod for the manufacture of nails, screws and nuts.
For the production of steel, the operation of the seventh plant is required, which is the Direct Reduction of Iron (DRI), which will be completed by March 2025, and, with this, the complex is fully operational.
“As of September we would be starting to launch, testing, making adjustments as in any complex of this magnitude, the tests and adjustments take a few months, so that from March (2025) we will be producing Bolivian steel” , said.
He recalled that 200,000 tons of steel will be produced per year and will replace 50% of the iron imports from Peru, Brazil, Argentina and China. This decrease in imports will save the country about US$200 million.
