TEHRAN- The value of Iran’s steel ingots export stood at $730 million in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-Septemebr 22), the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) reported.

As reported, the country exported 5.7 million tons of steel products worth $2.9 billion in the six-month period.

Steel products export in the first half of this year indicates 14 percent drop in value and 13 percent fall in weight, as compared to the first half of the previous year.

The World Steel Association (WSA) announced in its latest report that steel production in Iran during the first quarter of 2024 registered a 16.3 percent growth compared to the same period last year.

The report added that the volume of steel production in the world in the 3-month period has risen by 0.5 percent.

More than 469 million tons of steel was produced across the world in January-March 2024, 161.2 million tons of which was produced in March 2024.

Iran has produced 7.6 million tons of steel from January to March 2024, showing a 16.3 percent growth compared to the same period last year, according to Mehr news agency.

China, India, Japan, the US, Russia, South Korea, Germany, Turkey, Brazil and Iran were the world’s top 10 steel producers in the first quarter of 2024.

Production of steel in Iran increased by 5.8 percent in the previous Iranian calendar year 1402 (ended on March 19), as compared to the preceding year, according to the ISPA.

According to the latest data released by the ISPA, the country’s steel production reached 29.334 million tons in the previous year.

Of the mentioned amount, 18,452,000 tons were billet and bloom and 10,882,000 tons were slabs; Billet and bloom production increased by 9.2 percent and slab production increased by 0.7 percent in the previous year.

According to the ISPA data, the production of sponge iron also increased by 8.5 percent in the previous year in comparison to the figure for the preceding year.

Iran improved its global standing in steel production, becoming the ninth-largest producer in January 2024, according to new data released by the WSA.

The Islamic Republic produced 31.1 million tons of crude steel in 2023 to account for 58.4 percent of West Asia’s total production in the mentioned year, according to the WSA.

The West Asian nations reviewed in the WSA report, including Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, managed to produce 53.2 million tons of steel in 2023.

The country’s steel production increased by 1.8 percent in 2023 as compared to the previous year, when the production stood at 30.6 million tons, based on the WSA data.

MA