Oman-based Moon Iron & Steel Company (Misco) has awarded a contract for a new reinforcing bar (rebar) production mini mill to Germany’s SMS Group.

The steelworks supplied by SMS Group include a 140-tonne AC electric arc furnace, a 140-tonne ladle furnace, and a five-strand continuous billet caster. The fully-continuous rolling line will have 14 stands and two high-speed finishing blocks with six mill stands each.

The mini mill will have a capacity of 1.2 million tonnes a year (t/y) of billets, of which 1.1 million t/y can be rolled into rebars from eight to 40 millimetres.

SMS Group is also supplying the electrical and automated control systems.

Misco awarded a $230m deal to Indian-based Shriram EPC in August. It covered engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work at the steel plant in Sohar.

The local Bank Sohar was mandated to arrange a $270m project finance deal for the steel mill in 2013.