Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 7
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran has increases duties on steel imports as of Feb. 28.
Shahram Mirakhorlou, an official with Iran's Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade, said that duties on imports of steel ingots, slabs, and bars were increased from 4 percent to 10 percent, 15 percent, and 20 percent, respectively, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on March 7.
The administration took the decision to support domestic producers of steel products, he noted.
However, the main problem is that the housing sector is in recession due to the fact that development budget is insufficient to launch new development projects, he said.
Iran was the world's 14th biggest producer of steel in Jan. 2015. The country also stood at the first place among the Middle East countries.
Over 1.366 million metric tons of crude steel were produced in Iran in January 2015, the World Steel Association said in its latest monthly report released Feb. 20.
The figure indicates an increase by 19.7 percent compared to the same month of preceding year.