TEHRAN- Iran produced 1.734 million tons of crude steel in the first month of current Iranian calendar year, Farvardin (March 21-April 20), a 15 percent rise from 1.507 million tons in the same month last year, IRIB reported on Monday.

The country’s production of steel products also shows 17 percent growth compared to the first month of past year.
Iran’s exports of crude steel and steel products stood at 439,000 tons and 102,000 tons in this year’s Farvardin, indicating 28 percent rise and 41 percent fall, respectively, from the same month of the previous year.

Crude steel output stood at 18.466 million tons in the past calendar year 1395, showing 11 percent rise from 16.656 million tons in 1394.
Of the mentioned figure, 14.419 million tons have been produced by the state-run companies and the rest 4.047 million tons by the private sector.
The country exported 5.5 million tons of crude steel in the past year, with 27 percent increase from the figure of its preceding year.

Iranian Steel Manufacturers Association’s Secretary Rasoul Khalifeh-Soltan believes that while the country’s steel industry’s growth has been 5.7 percent on average in the recent years, the figure can reach 10 percent this year, given the promising condition the sector enjoys at present.

MA/MG