Libyan Iron & Steel Company (LISCO): Looking for Strategic Investors

Chairman of Libyan Iron & Steel Company (LISCO) Dr. Mohamed Abdulmalik Elfigih talks about the strategy and expansion plans for LISCO.

According to Dr. Elfigih, the production of rebars is in the range of 650,000 tonnes per year. As the result of increased demand from the local market the company is planning to expand.

“We want to utilise this opportunity from the increased local demand and so we have made an expansion plan to increase our finished product capability of rebars to approximately 1.6 million tonnes per year. I hope this capacity will be ready to be implemented by the second half of 2014. by that time in 2014 our rebar production capability will reach 1.5 million tonnes. this will be enough to cover the local demand. In terms of the flat products, our capacity is in the range of 580,000 tonnes. our expansion plan is to reach 1.5 million tonnes in two stages. So far I think in the range of 30% of our flat products are for the local market and the other 70% are exported to the international market. Therefore our expansion plan includes increasing our share on the international market and also the local market. The liquid steel production capability as per the plan will reach 4.0 million tonnes per year.”

The expansion plan will require US$ 3 billion. The financing of the project is divided into 3 parts. One part will be self financed by LISCO, another part will be financed by a loan from the local banks, and the remaining part will be financed by either local or foreign investment. This means that LISCO is looking for investors to help finance the rest of the expansion.