TEHRAN- Iran’s major steel companies produced over 11.27 million tons of steel products during the 10-month period from March 21, 2019, to January 20, 2020, registering a 97-percent growth from the figure for the same period in the previous year, IRNA reported on Saturday.

The country’s steel products output hit 1.146 million tons in the tenth Iranian calendar month of Dey (December 22, 2019-January 20, 2020).

Also as reported, with 6.84 million tons of output, Mobarakeh Steel Company, the largest steel producer in Iran, accounted for the biggest share of the country’s steel production in the mentioned 10-month period, followed by Iran National Steel Industrial Group.

Iran’s major steel producers produced over 17.08 million tons of steel ingots in the said 10 months, five-percent more than the figure for the same period last year.
The country exported 5.884 million tons of steel during the mentioned time span, which was 25 percent higher than the figure of the same period of time in the past year, IRNA reported on Friday.

Exports made by the major producers rose 93 percent to hit 674,873 tons during the calendar month of Dey.

Iran has defined 16 development projects in the steel sector which are aimed to boost the country’s output of steel products by 17.3 million tons in a course of five years.

These projects are for constructing production units each with the capacity of 600,000 tons, while some other projects have been also defined to set up some units with under 500,000-ton capacity that together with the 600,000-ton capacity units will add 19.1 million tons to the country’s annual steel products output.

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

The country’s annual crude steel production is planned to rise to 30 million tons in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 19, 2020) from 25 million tons in the past year.

Last month, the World Steel Association (WSA) announced that Iran’s crude steel production increased by 30 percent in 2019 while the average global growth in this sector stood at 3.5 percent.

Based on the WSA report, Iran produced 31.9 million tons of the mentioned commodity during 2019 compared to the last year’s nearly 24 million tons.

EF/MA