60% Decline in Iran's Exports of Heavyweight Steel Mills

EghtesadOnline: Iranian heavyweight steel producers exported 809,665 tons of steel products, including beam, rebar, ingot, slab, hot- and cold-rolled coils, and coated coils, during the first two months of the current Iranian year (March 20-May 20) to register a 60% decline compared with last year’s corresponding period.

News ID: ۷۵۰۲۰۲

09 June 2020

The heavyweight steel mills' exports hit 393,753 tons during the month ending May 20, according to the Iranian Steel Producers Association's latest report.

Ingots topped the list of exports, as heavyweight steel producers exported 291,429 tons of the semi-finished product during the period, indicating a 49% year-on-year decrease.

Khuzestan Steel Company was the biggest exporter as it shipped 105,017 tons of ingots, down by 67% YOY; followed by South Kaveh Steel Company with 90,891 tons (down 11% YOY), Esfahan Steel Company (ESCO) with 68,021 tons (down 35% YOY) and Chadormalu Steel Company with 27,500 tons (unchanged).

The steel mills’ ingot exports totaled 170,167 tons during the month to May 20.

Ingots were followed by slabs, as steel mills exported 71,213 tons of the product during the two months, down 78% YOY.

KSC was also the biggest exporter in this category, as it exported 39,647 tons of the product, down 53% YOY, while Hormozgan Steel Company exported 31,566 tons, down 80% YOY. The steel mills did not have any slab exports during the month to May 20.

Rebar exports hit 26,231 tons, down 38% YOY. ESCO was the sole exporter in this category, as its rebar exports witnessed a 34% YOY decrease. The company exported 18,202 tons of rebars during the month to May 20.

Hot-rolled coil was next with 9,859 tons, registering an 87% YOY decline. Mobarakeh Steel Company had the larger share with 9,202 tons (down 88% YOY), while Oxin Steel Company exported 657 tons in two months (unchanged YOY).

The two companies exported 5,027 tons of HRC during the month to May 20.

ESCO also exported 5,773 tons of beams during the two months under review, down 15% YOY. The steel mill's beam exports during the month to May 20 hit 4,121 tons.

MSC also exported 3,645 tons of cold-rolled coil as well as 2,783 tons of coated coils during the two months to May 20 to register a 65% and 22% YOY decline respectively.

The company’s CRC and coated coil exports during the month to May 20 reached 1,687 tons and 1,153 tons respectively.

The ISPA report only considers the output of large-scale producers. The volume of total exports by all Iranian steelmakers is larger than the quoted figure of 809,665 tons.

World's 10th Biggest Steelmaker

Iran is the world’s 10 biggest crude steel producer, the latest report by World Steel Association shows.

Iranian steel mills produced a total of 8.49 million tons of crude steel during January-April, which indicates a 4.3% rise compared with the corresponding period of 2019.

Iran’s crude steel output stood at 31.9 million tons in 2019, according to Worldsteel, up 30.1% YOY.

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 aims to become the world’s sixth largest steel producer as per the 20-Year Vision Plan, which targets annual production capacity expansion to 55 million tons and 20-25 million tons of exports by 2025.

Iranian steelmakers produced more than 47.42 million tons of semi-finished and finished steel products in the last Iranian year that ended on March 19, 2020, to register an 8.37% increase compared to the year before.

Semi-finished steel made up 27.24 million tons of the total output, up 10% year-on-year.

Billet and bloom made up 16.78 million tons of semi-finished production, indicating an 18% rise YOY while slab output hit 10.45 million tons, posting no significant change YOY.

As for finished steel, the output increased 6% YOY to 20.18 million tons.

Long steel products had the lion's share of finished steel production with 10.22 million tons, up 6% YOY.

Rebar had a major share with 8.3 million tons (up 6% YOY), followed by beams with 1.12 million tons (up 8% YOY) and L-beam, T-beam and other types with 799,000 tons (up 4% YOY).

Flat steel products had a 9.96 million-ton share in the output of finished steel products, posting a 5% rise YOY. HRC made up 8.23 million tons of the production in this category, registering a 4% growth YOY, followed by CRC with 2.62 million tons (up 4% YOY) and coated coil with 1.63 million tons (up 12% YOY).

22% Rise in Exports in Fiscal 2019-20

More than 10.36 million tons of finished and semi-finished steel products were exported in the last Iranian year to register a 22.21% year-on-year increase.

Semi-finished steel made up 6.9 million tons or more than 66.66% of the total export volume, up 26% YOY.

Billet and bloom had the lion’s share of semis exports with an aggregate of 4.83 million tons to mark a 24% YOY rise. Slab followed with 2.07 million tons, up 31% YOY.

Exports of finished steel products increased 16% YOY to reach 3.45 million tons.

Long steel products had the biggest share of finished products’ exports with a total of 2.65 million tons (76.7%) to register a 26% growth YOY.

Rebar was the main exported product in this category with 2.23 million tons, registering a 35% increase YOY, followed by L-beam, T-beam and other types with 223,000 tons (up 5% YOY) and beams with 194,000 (down 20% YOY).

Flat steel products had an 805,000-ton share in exports of finished steel products, down 8% YOY.

Hot-rolled coil grabbed the lion’s share in this category with 536,000 tons to register a decrease of 19% YOY.

Next was coated coil with 149,000 tons, down 13% YOY, and cold-rolled coil with 120,000 tons, up by 179% YOY.

Exports of direct-reduced iron increased 77% YOY to 942,000 tons.

With a total of more than 1.83 million tons of exports last year, Khouzestan Steel Company was Iran's biggest exporter in the fiscal 2019-20.

The mill experienced year-on-year declines of 16% in exports during the year under review.

MSC was the second biggest exporter of the year as it shipped 1.45 million tons of products, up 65% compared with last year's corresponding period.

ESCO ranked third as it exported 1.15 million tons during the year, up 28% compared with last year's corresponding period.