TEHRAN: Iran said on Sunday that it had exported 4.1 million tons of steel in the past Persian calendar year which ended on 22 March 2016 thus setting a new record in sales of the strategic product to international markets. Mehdi Karbasian, Iran’s deputy trade minister, has been quoted by the media as saying that the total value of Iran’s steel exports over the same period stood at $10 billion.
Karbasian added that a record rise in exports of steel had already helped pull many producing units out of financial crisis. He said that the positive performance of Iran’s steel industry was a result of an intensive campaign by the government of President Hassan Rouhani to support industrial units and encourage their export activities.
Karbasian further said that Iran’s steel success came in face of a poor market condition and at a time that China and Russia – two other leading international players – had started to adopt the policy of dumping due to a severe plunge in prices. Iran is currently the largest steelmaker in the Middle East and North Africa and the world’s 14th largest producer. The country has already devised serious plans to increase its steel production capacity to 55 million tons per year from the current level of about 17 million tons per year by 2025. The country’s export capacity is also expected to rise to above 13 million tons per year.
The country is pushing ahead with the development of several major provincial steel production plans and is already forging ahead with serious plans to bring in foreign investors like Italy’s Danieli and South Korea’s POSCO to the same effect.
