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Iran steel producers lose domestic market to Chinese rivals

Business Materials 13 August 2016 11:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 13

By Fatih Karimov – Trend:

Iranian steel producers are losing domestic market to steel products imported from China, Bahman Ghasemi, a member of Iran’s Steel Producers Association, said.

Steel products imported from China are 30 percent cheaper compared to domestic products, Ghasemi said, Mehr news agency reported Aug. 13.

He criticised the Iranian administration for not supporting domestic producers.

Ghasemi said that, however, Chinese steel producers import their raw material, including iron ore, from Iran and they provide the Iranian market with cheaper steel.

He said certain Iranian companies sell steel ingots to domestic producers at price of 15,110 rials, meanwhile they sell the same material to Chinese companies at 11000 rials (each USD making 31,000 rials).

It is not the first time that Iranian steel producers raise protests to imports from China.

The country is full of iron mines and giant steel factories, but steel industrialists there have been suffering from dumping by China.

The Islamic Republic’s steel output throughout 2015 is estimated to have hit 16.11 million tons. This in turn shows a 1.4-percent decline year-on-year.

Iran also produced 16.331 million tons of crude steel in 2014.

The country’s crude steel production reached 15.421 million tons in 2013, which was 6.6 percent more than in the preceding year.

Iran plans to improve its steel output to 55 million tons per year by 2025. For that, Iran needs to achieve an iron ore extraction of 135 million tons per year.

Currently, the country’s iron ore output stands at 40 million tons per year.

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