TEHRAN- Iran’s steel export increased by 15.5 percent during the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-November 21), compared to the same period in the past year, the Iranian Steel Producers Association (ISPA) announced.

According to the ISPA, the value of the country’s steel export stood at $4.8 billion in the mentioned eight-month period.

The latest report by the World Steel Association (WSA) indicates that the production of crude steel in Iran reached 25.1 million tons in the first 10 months of 2023, registering a 0.1 percent decline as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

The WSA data put the world’s 10-month crude steel production at 1.567 billion tons.

The report shows that Iran’s crude steel output also stood at 3.1 million tons in October, and Iran maintained its place as the world’s 10th largest steel producer in the mentioned period.

The world’s 71 steel producers managed to produce 150 million tons of steel in October 2023, 0.6 percent more than the figure for the previous year’s same month.

Based on the WSA report, China, India, Japan, the U.S., and Russia were the world’s top steel producers in the first 10 months of 2023, respectively.

The previous WSA report had put Iran’s steel output in the first nine months of 2023 at 22.1 million tons, also 0.6 percent less than the same period in 2022.

The Islamic Republic’s monthly crude steel output stood at 2.4 million tons in September, indicating a decrease of 12.7 percent compared to the figure for September 2022.

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).

MA