TEHRAN- Production of iron ore concentrate in Iran stood at 29.950 million tons in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22), a four-percent rise year on year.

Also, iron ore concentrate output rose five percent in the seventh month of this year, from that of the previous year, as 4.432 million tons of the product produced in the seventh month of the present year.

Production of iron ore concentrate in Iran during the previous Iranian calendar year 1399 (ended on March 20) reached 49.714 million tons, registering a five-percent rise compared to the preceding year.

According to the Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry data, of the mentioned figure 3.533 million tons was produced in the last month of the previous year (February 19-March 20).

The country’s major iron ore concentrate producers had managed to produce about 47.306 million tons of the mentioned product in the Iranian calendar year 1398.

In its outlook plan for the Iranian calendar year 1404 (2025-2026) Iran has envisaged production of 55 million tons of steel per annum, and to achieve this target the country requires to extract 160 million tons of iron ore.

In a bid to prevent the exports of unprocessed minerals, creating more value-added and meeting the requirements of domestic producers for the raw materials, Iran has levied a 25-percent duty on the exports of raw minerals (especially iron ore) since September 2019.

The duty is aimed at encouraging the production of more processed minerals such as pellets and concentrate instead of selling the raw minerals.

MA/MA