TEHRAN - Iran has improved its global standing in steel production, becoming the ninth-largest producer in January 2024, according to new data released by the World Steel Association (WSA).

In the first month of 2024, Iranian steel mills produced a total of 2.6 million tons of steel, registering a 39.3 percent increase compared to the same month of 2023, as reported by the WSA on Monday.

The world's 71 steel-producing countries produced 148.1 million tons of steel in January 2024, indicating a 1.6 percent yearly decline.

Iran was ranked first in terms of production growth among the world’s top steel producers in the mentioned period.

According to the World Steel Association, Iran is the world’s ninth largest steel producer in the said period, after countries like China, India, Japan, the US, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, and Germany.

The Islamic Republic produced 31.1 million tons of crude steel in 2023 to account for 58.4 percent of West Asia’s total production in the mentioned year, according to the WSA.

The West Asian nations reviewed in the WSA report, including Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, managed to produce 53.2 million tons of steel in 2023.

The country’s steel production increased by 1.8 percent in 2023 as compared to the previous year, when the production stood at 30.6 million tons, based on the WSA data.

West Asia’s total crude steel output increased by 1.3 percent in the mentioned year as compared to 2022.

Based on the WSA data, Iran was the world’s 10th largest steel producer in 2023.

The world's steel producers managed to produce more than 1.888 billion tons of steel in 2023, which is a very slight decrease compared to 2022, and as a result, the World Steel Association has declared the percentage of change to be zero.

China with a production of 1.019 billion tons, India with a production of 140.2 million tons, and Japan with a production of 87 million tons were the top three steel-producing countries in the world in 2023.

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).

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