Tehran, Iran, Sept.6
Trend:
Iran's Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade has expressed concerns over shortage of iron ore and lack of balance in steel production, Trend reports citing ILNA.
"Some steel factories are set up without considering the access to water and raw material, and this created concerns over raw material supply. Therefore, the ministry should address the problem in its efforts to develop the industry," said Reza Rahmani.
"Currently, the excessive issue of certificates for development of downstream industries has caused the shortage of supplies for upstream industries and this requires balance in production chain," he added.
Investment in mines will solve the issue of iron ore shortage, but this requires financial resources, advanced equipment and technology. The financial resources are not available at the moment, and this needs to be followed, he said.
The official has indicated that Iran has exported 23 million tons of iron ore in last two years and only 10 percent of iron ore products has been exported.
"Iran has exported around eight million tons of iron ore in last Iranian year [started March 21, 2018] that indicates priority of supplying raw material for domestic industries," he said.
"One of the policies of the ministry is to prevent sale of raw materials and create value added tax. Whenever we feel the need of raw material in domestic market, exports will be banned or taxes would increase," he added.
"In some cases, miners need foreign currency to import equipment and machinery; therefore, they have to export their product and use the foreign currency revenues to import," he indicated.
"Fortunately, Iran's steel has good quality and given the customers interests for Iran's steel, it is unlikely that there will be any problem for steel exports in the future," he said.
In his words, the government is not interested to be involved in pricing steel, but there is expectations that it is responsible to keep the balance in the market. Last Iranian year the government had to get involved in pricing, as dealers influenced the prices, he added.