TEHRAN - Iran was ranked the world’s tenth-largest steel producer in the first three-month of 2021, Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) announced referring to the data released by the World Steel Association (WSA).

According to the WSA’s data, Iran produced 7.5 million tons of crude steel in Q1 2021, registering a 10.7 percent growth compared to the same period in 2020.

The Islamic Republic’s steel output stood at 2.6 million tons in March, indicating a 10.7 percent rise year on year.

Based on the mentioned data, the world’s top 64 steel makers managed to produce 648.9 million tons of steel in the mentioned three months to register a 10 percent rise from the figure for the last year’s same period.

Also, the production of world’s major steel producers reached 169.2 million tons in March, with a 15.2 percent increase over the same period last year.

Producing 271 million tons and 29.6 million tons of the product, China and India stood at the first and second places in the said period, respectively, while Japan stood at third place producing 23.7 million tons of crude steel.

The U.S., Russia South Korea, Germany, Turkey, and Brazil took fourth to ninth places, respectively.

The Iranian Steel industry has been constantly developing over the past years against all the pressures and obstacles created by outside forces like the U.S. sanctions and the coronavirus outbreak that has severely affected the performance of the world’s top producers.

The country is expected to climb to seventh place among the world’s top steel producers by the Iranian calendar year 1404 (March 2025).

According to the former Acting Minister of Industry, Mining, and Trade Hossein Modares Khiabani, the production capacity of the country's steel chain increased from 123 million tons in the Iranian calendar year 1392 (ended in March 2014) to 230 million tons in the previous year (ended on March 20).

EF/MA