TEHRAN- Iran’s crude steel production during the first eleven months of 2019 has risen 5.3 percent from that of the same period of time in 2018, World Steel Association (WSA) announced in its recent report.

The WSA put the country’s crude steel output at 23.648 million tons in the eleven-month period of this year, rising from 22.452 million tons in the same time span of the previous year, IRNA reported.

Based on the WSA report, the rise in Iran’s steel production was almost double that of the average global increase in crude steel production.

WSA says that crude steel production in the world has risen 2.7 percent to reach 1.684 billion tons in the first eleven months of this year.

Iran produced 2.13 million tons of crude steel in November 2019, which was 2.6 percent lower than 2.187 million tons of the product produced in November 2018, the same report confirmed.

According to World Steel Association, Iran became the world’s tenth largest steel producer in 2018.

Iran which stood at the 13th place in 2017 could lag behind three major steel producers in the world, namely Italy, Taiwan, and Ukraine to stand at the 10th place in 2018, despite the re-imposition of sanctions by the U.S.

According to the WSA’s report, Iran produced 25 million tons of crude steel in 2018 which indicates 17.7 percent growth from 21.2 million tons in 2017.

In early May, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran's metals and minerals sectors in an attempt to [as the U.S. president Trump put it] “choke off the country’s largest non-petroleum related sources of export revenue".

While at the first glance [considering Trump’s comments], this might seem to be a heavy hit to Iran’s economy in the near future but a close look into the country’s exports data could reveal Trump’s great miscalculations. In fact, this could even be considered a “blessing in disguise” for the country’s minerals and metal industry.

In a press conference on June 8, Iranian Deputy Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Jafar Sarqini said the ministry has taken necessary measures to maintain the country’s metal exports despite U.S. sanctions.

According to the official, Iran’s annual steel production is planned to reach 45 million tons by the Iranian calendar year 1400 (March 2021-March 2022).

On June 15, Sarqini had announced that the country’s annual crude steel production is planned to reach 30 million tons in the current Iranian calendar year.

EF/MA