Tehran, Iran, Jan.17
Trend:
The economic pressure and import limitations have effected Iran's steel industry, while foreign investors have no tendency to invest in this sector in the country.
"Currently in production process, the raw material and equipment imports for each ton of steel costs $120 that should be provided to the sector," member of Iran Steel Producers Association Reza Shahrestani told Trend.
"This means that $3 million have been spent on the imports during this Iranian year (started on March 21,2019) to produce 25 million tons of steel , therefore the steel association decided to showcase its steel production in an exhibition to promote steel localization," he said.
Further speaking about Iran International Steel Expo in Tehran, Shahrestani said the steel companies there were after two goals - feature steel products that got localized and showing off domestic goods that previously were only imported.
"This approach led to establishing a connection between producing companies and customers," he explained.
He also admitted that foreign investors are not interested in putting money into Iran's steel industry.
"In the current situation, no foreign investor will invest in Iran's steel sector," he said. "We asked Italian Danieli Company that has a factory in Iran, to attend the expo, but they weren't interested."
Speaking about offering steel at Iran's Mercantile Exchange, he said there wasn't any need for it.
"There is no need to offer direct reduced iron and slabs at the exchange, due to surplus production in the country. These items can be supplied easily to the free market, but other steel products can be offered at Mercantile Exchange and the price would be calculated according to the NIMA system," Shahrestani said.