TEHRAN- Production of crude steel in Iran reached 17.8 million tons during January-July, 2021 to register a 9.9 percent growth year on year, according to the latest report released by the World Steel Association (WSA).

The WSA’s report put the crude steel output by the world’s top 64 producers at 1.165 billion tons in the mentioned time span, registering an increase of 12.4 percent.

Iran’s monthly crude steel output stood at 2.6 million tons in July 2021, rising nine percent compared to the figure for July 2020.

The Islamic Republic maintained its place as the world’s 10th biggest steel producer during the mentioned time span, the report said.

Producing 649.3 million and 68 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 56 million tons of crude steel.

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

According to the report, Africa produced 1.3 million tons of the commodity in July 2021, up 36.9 percent on July 2020. Asia and Oceania produced 116.4 million tons, down 2.5 percent. The CIS produced 9.2 million tons, up 11.2 percent. The EU produced 13.0 million tons, up 30.3 percent. Europe, other produced 4.1 million tons, up 4.6 percent, West Asia produced 3.6 million tons, up 9.2 percent. North America produced 10.2 million tons, up 36.0 percent, while South America produced 3.8 million tons, up 19.6 percent.

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 Iranian Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry, 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