TEHRAN – Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry has held a seminar on the steel industry’s electricity-related challenges in collaboration with the Energy Ministry and the Iranian Steel Producers Association (ISPA).

As ISNA reported, the seminar, held on Sunday, was attended by senior officials from the mentioned ministries and the ISPA as well as the managers of the country’s major steel companies.

Speaking in the opening ceremony of the event, the ISPA Head Bahram Sobhani mentioned the country’s steel production target for the Iranian calendar year of 1404 (starts on March 21, 2025) which is set to be 55 million tons, saying: “This year, we faced an electricity supply crisis. Last year, too, there was a shortage of gas and electricity, and the result was that today, with a potential capacity of 40 million tons, we have only 30 million tons of production.”

The official noted that 10 million of the production capacity which has not been realized equals six billion dollars of revenue and this amount of income could have a major impact on the country’s economic growth.

“Today, in these conditions, 25 million tons of installed capacity in the country’s steel production units has remained idle,” he regretted.

The steel industry needs electricity, and now, in the current situation, it has been suggested that the units themselves will build power plants to meet their needs, which is possible for large units, but small sectors will not be able to do so, he added.

Elsewhere in the seminar, Deputy Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Saeed Zarandi mentioned the industrial sectors’ eight percent growth in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21), saying: “Last year, despite all the challenges and problems caused by the sanctions and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, was a good year for production, and the industrial and manufacturing sectors moved in the right direction. The upward trend of these sectors has continued in the first quarter of this year.”

“Given that the Industry Ministry monitors the production of major industrial and mineral products on a monthly basis, the statistics in this regard show that 27 products had absolute growth and about 30 products experienced a good growth level,” Zarandi said.

Zarandi further pointed to an agreement between the industry and energy ministries based on which the country’s major industrial firms are going to build 10,500 megawatt capacity of new power plants to supply their needed electricity.

EF/MA