Iran unveils Mideast’s largest EAF transformer, boosting steel self-reliance
Iran has unveiled the Middle East’s largest electric arc furnace (EAF) transformer, with a capacity of 210 megavolt-amperes (MVA), in Semnan Province, achieving self-reliance in a core component of its steel industry, Bahram Sobhani, head of the Iranian Steel Producers Association (ISPA), said Friday at the inauguration ceremony.
The event was held at the Arya Transfo Shahmirzad industrial complex in Semnan Province, with the attendance of the head and members of Parliament’s Economic Committee and Mohammad Javad Kolivand, the provincial governor, IRNA reported.
“The largest EAF transformer in the Middle East, with a capacity of 210 MVA, along with 33 MVA ladle furnace (LF) transformers and a 40 MVA series reactor — both domestically produced — were unveiled on order from the country’s steel industry,” Sobhani said.
He noted that Iran previously sourced up to 90% of its required transformers for the steel sector from Italy. “The domestic production of this transformer shows that Iran’s steel industry is now independent from imports of these vital and foundational pieces of equipment,” he added.
Sobhani described the transformer as “the heart of a steel plant,” valued at up to 5 million euros, “which has now been localized.”
He explained that the full design and manufacturing of this critical transformer were carried out by Iranian scientists using domestic technology at the Arya Transfo industrial group in Semnan, commissioned by Iran’s steel producers, with limited advisory support from Italian consultants in certain sections.
“The continuation of orders and production of these EAF transformers will make the country’s steel industry independent from imports,” Sobhani said.
“There is nothing in Iran that we cannot build, and massive equipment is producible through the efforts of capable Iranian engineers and workers. Steel complex construction in Iran began in the 1970s with Italian collaboration, and Khorasan and Saba steel plants — with about 50% domestic content — marked the beginning of localizing the steel industry,” he added.