Tehran, Iran, Jan.7
Trend:
A member of Iran Steel Producers Association, referring to the first national festival and national steel exhibition, which began today on January 7th in Tehran, said that this is an event that focuses on providing localization and supporting domestic production.
Tehran's Milad Tower is hosting the first National Steel Exhibition, runs for a week from January 7th.
“The government should refrain from putting obstacles on exporters, and allow the exports to be made,” member of the association of Iranian steel producers, Reza Shahrestani, told Trend.
In September 2018, Iran's government announced a new rule on steel and petrochemical exports. Based on the directive, exporters of steel (including semi-finished, finished and downstream products), must return all hard currency earned from overseas sales into the country within 60 days from the date of export.
Iran's main steel producers, excluding small private sector mills, exported 2.62 million tons of finished and semi-finished steel in four months from March 21 to July 21, according to statistics from Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), a 13-percent increase from the same period last year.
World Steel Association (WSA) in its report said that Iran's crude steel production registered a considerable 25.8 percent growth in the first half of 2018, compared to the same period last year.
“Unfortunately, the sanctions, mismanagement and financial constraints, as well as the lack of expert advisers among investors, have caused problems with the use of up-to-date technology and this needs to be changed fundamentally,” Shahrestani added.
Pointing to the country's potential for producing steel, he says that based on mine exploration, if Iran reaches 55 million tons of steel production, it will have enough ore for 13 to 14 years ahead.
"On the other hand, there are still a lot of locations that haven't been explored yet. The increase of at least 4 billion tons of capacity is reserved in those mines and in this situation, if we want to produce 100 million tons annually, the needed ore for 40 upcoming years still remains,” said Shahrestani.
He added that China is currently the largest producer and consumer of steel in the world, which produces about 800 million tons equal to 50 percent of the world's total steel production.
Iranian steel production rose to a record 20.6 million tons in the first 10 months of 2018, making the country the world’s 11th biggest producer, data by the World Steel Association showed last month.