Tehran, Iran, Jan. 30
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad – Trend:
A senior Iranian official has expressed hope that the country‘s exports of steel would reach eight million tons by the end of the current fiscal year (March 20).
“Iran’s exports of steel over the first nine months of the current year stood at six million tons and the figure will hit eight million tons by the year end, which is a new record,” Iran's Deputy Minister of Mines, Industry and Trade Jafar Sargheini told reporters in Tehran on the sidelines of Iran Steel Market Conference on Tuesday.
In the meantime, the industry minister, Mohammad Shariatmadari, told the conference that under Iran's 20-Year Economic Perspective, the country’s steel industry is expected to hit an output level of 55 million tons per year.
“In order to achieve the target, the industry needs to produce 160 million tons of iron ore,” Shariatmadari added.
World Steel Association (WSA), through its latest report, suggested that the country produced 20.5 million tons of sponge iron during 2017, accounting for 28 percent of total global output.
The Iranian Steel Producers Association says the industry produced over 16.073 million tons of crude steel during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (March 20-Dec. 21, 2017), a rise by 16 percent compared to the same period of last year.
Meanwhile, the country exported 4.614 million tons of crude steel (an 80 percent increase year-on-year) and 1.075 million tons of various steel products (a 29 percent fall).