TEHRAN- Production of steel in Iran increased by 8.5 percent in the previous Iranian calendar year 1401 (ended on March 20), as compared to the preceding year, an official with the Iranian Steel Producers Association (ISPA) said.

According to Vahid Yaghoubi, the country’s steel production reached 30.4 million tons in the previous year, while the output stood at 28 million tons in the year 1400, IRIB reported.

The official noted that steel production in the country also increased by 10.5 percent in the first three months of the current calendar year (March 21-June 21) as compared to the same quarter in the previous year.

Yaghoubi estimated Iran’s steel production to reach 32 million tons in the current year.

As recently announced by the World Steel Association (WSA), Iran is ranked eighth among the world’s top steel-producing countries in the first six months of 2023.

Production of crude steel in Iran reached 16.1 million tons during the mentioned six months, registering a 4.8 percent increase year on year, according to WSA data.

The Islamic Republic stood at 10th place among the world’s biggest steel producers in the first half of 2022.

Iran’s monthly crude steel output stood at 3.2 million tons in June, indicating an increase of 17.4 percent compared to the figure for June 2022. The world’s producers managed to produce 158.8 million tons of steel in the said month to register a 0.1-percent drop year on year.

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.

Back in February, the WSA reported that Iran’s crude steel production increased by eight percent in 2022 when the production by the world’s top 64 steelmakers declined by 4.2 percent.

Iran was ranked first among the world’s top steel producers in terms of production growth in the previous year.

EF/MA