Iran Steel Output Rises 24% to Surpass 10 Million Tons

EghtesadOnline: Iranian steel mills produced 10.14 million tons of crude steel during the first five months of 2018, up 24.3% compared with last year’s similar period, the latest report released by World Steel Association showed.

News ID: ۷۴۵۵۱۵

24 June 2018

Iran’s May steel output grew by 12.4% year-on-year to hit 2 million tons. The country is currently the world’s 11th biggest steel producer. It is placed between Italy (10th) with 10.66 million tons and Mexico (12th) with 8.74 million tons.

The world’s 64 steelmakers produced a total of 729.47 million tons of steel during the five months, up 4.3% YOY.

Global steel output stood at 155.03 million tons in May, indicating a 6.7% increase YOY, according to Financial Tribune.

China was the world’s largest producer during the period under review with 369.85 million tons of steel output, up 5.4% YOY. Chinese steel production hit 81.12 million tons in May to rise 8.9% YOY.

The country was followed by India with 44.38 million tons, Japan with 44.21 million tons, the United States with 34.84 million tons, Russia with 30.02 million tons, South Korea with 29.9 million tons, Germany with 18.65 million tons, Turkey with 15.85 million tons and Brazil with 14.27 million tons.

Crude steel is defined as steel in its first solid (or usable) form: ingots and semi-finished products (billets, blooms and slabs). This is not to be confused with liquid steel, which is steel poured.

Iran’s steel output stood at 21.72 million tons in 2017, according to Worldsteel, up 21.4% YOY. The country aims to become the world’s sixth largest steel producer as per the 20-Year Vision Plan, which targets annual production capacity of 55 million tons of steel and 20-25 million tons of exports per year by 2025.

Iranian steel mills have so far realized more than 30 million tons of the capacity target.

Statistics by Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization show that the country produced 10.58 million tons of finished steel products, including hot- and cold-rolled coils, rebar, beams, pipes, wide and galvanized sheets, in the last fiscal year (March 21, 2017-18), up 5% YOY.

Global direct-reduced iron output increased 17.8% year-on-year to 7.19 million tons in May, according to Worldsteel.

Production was also up for the five-month period, with 2018 figures growing 17.2% year-on-year to 35.17 million tons.

The largest increase was in Iran where output during the five months increased 3.89 million tons or 53.5% YOY to 11.19 million tons.

Iran’s primary rival in DRI output, India, increased its five-month production by only 7.9% YOY to 12.42 million tons.

The Islamic Republic has been working to increase its iron ore processing capacity, including both DRI and hot-briquetted iron production, while it targets raising its total steel output to 55 million tons per year by 2025, up from 17.9 million tons per year in 2016 to feed its steelmaking expansion.