TEHRAN - The latest report released by the World Steel Association (WSA) shows that Iran’s crude steel output has increased 34 percent in July while the global average growth rate stood at – 6.5 percent, IRNA reported.

Based on the WSA data, Iran produced about two million tons of crude steel in the mentioned month, while the figure was 1.49 million tons in July 2021.

The Islamic Republic produced 17.4 million tons of steel in the first seven months of 2022 to register a 3.2 percent growth compared to the same period in the previous year.

Iran’s steel output stood at 16.8 million tons in the first seven months of 2021.

WSA report says that the world’s 64 steel producers managed to produce 1102 million tons of the commodity in January-July 2022, 5.4 percent less than the figure for the previous year’s same period.

According to the WSA report, China, India, Japan, the U.S., and Russia were the world’s top steel producers respectively.

The increase in Iran’s crude steel production in January-July came as the U.S. steel production registered a three percent fall in the said period.

Iran has maintained its place as the world’s 10th biggest steel producer during the mentioned seven months, according to the WSA data.

Production of crude steel in Iran reached 13.6 million tons during the first six months of the current year, registering a 10.8 percent decline year on year.

The WSA put the crude steel output by the world’s top 64 producers at about 949 million tons in the mentioned time span, 5.5 percent less than the figure for the previous year’s first half.

Iran’s monthly crude steel output stood at 2.2 million tons in June, falling 10.8 percent compared to the figure for June 2021. The world’s producers managed to produce 158.1 million tons of steel in the said month to register a 5.9-percent drop year on year.

Producing 526 million and 63.2 million tons of steel, China and India stood in first and second places in the said period, respectively, while Japan occupied third place producing 46 million tons of the mentioned product.

The U.S., Russia, South Korea, Germany, Turkey, and Brazil took fourth to ninth places, respectively.

The Iranian Steel industry has been constantly developing over the past years against all the pressures and obstacles created by outside forces like the U.S. sanctions and the coronavirus outbreak that has severely affected the performance of the world’s top producers.

The country is expected to climb to seventh place among the world’s top steel producers by the Iranian calendar year 1404 (March 2025).

EF/MA