POSCO plans to sign preliminary agreement on Iran steel mill - source

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's POSCO <005490.KS> plans to sign a preliminary agreement with Iranian steelmaker PKP in March to buy a stake in a $1.6 billion steel mill project in the Middle Eastern country, a source with knowledge of the matter said. In September, the firms signed a memorandum of understanding to build a plant with an annual production capacity of 1.6 million tonnes in Iran's Chabahar free economic zone. "Now that sanctions have been lifted, POSCO and PKP plan to sign a MOA (momorandum of agreement) next month, moving one step further from the MOU," said the source, who asked not to be identified because of the confidentiality of the matter. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Meeyoung Cho; Editing by Ed Davies)