Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 23
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Over 40 percent of Iranian steelmakers have been shut down, ILNA quoted a member of the association of Iranian steelmakers as saying on November 23.
Jahanbakhsh Shokri added that the steelmakers are currently busy with construction or other jobs.
The domestic steel market is in recession, he said, adding that the recession seems to be continued during winter.
Over 9.174 million tons of steel ingots were produced in Iran during the first seven months of the current calendar year which started on March 21, the public relations office of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) said on November 20.
The figure shows a nine per cent increase compared to the same period of the last year," the IRIB News Agency reported.
More than 1.38 million tons of steel ingots were also produced in the seventh calendar month of Mehr (September 23 -October 22). The World Steel Association said in its latest press release that Iran produced around 1.364 million tons of crude steel in September 2013.
The figure shows a 10.7 percent increase compared to the same month in the previous year, the IRIB News Agency reported.
The country's total output in the first three quarters of 2013 amounted to 11.318 million tons.