The country's September output grew 6.7% year-on-year to hit 2.13 million tons, according to the Brussels-based international trade body for the iron and steel industry.
Iran’s global ranking remains unchanged compared to Worldsteel's previous monthly report: 10th biggest crude steel producer, according to Financial Tribune.
The country is placed between Brazil (9th) with 24.61 million tons of production and Italy (11th) with 17.62 million tons, the new report shows.
The world’s 64 steelmakers produced a total of 1.39 billion tons of steel over the nine-month period, up 3.9% YOY.
Global steel output stood at 151.33 million tons in September, indicating a 0.4% decrease YOY.
China was the world’s largest crude steel producer with 747.82 million tons of steel output, up 8.4% YOY. The country was followed by India with 84.18 million tons, Japan with 75.63 million tons, the United States with 66.2 million tons, South Korea with 54.13 million tons, Russia with 53.77 million tons, Germany with 30.36 million tons and Turkey with 25.28 million tons.
Iran’s crude steel output stood at 24.52 million tons in 2018, according to Worldsteel, up 17.7% YOY.
Crude steel is defined as steel in its first solid (or usable) form: ingots, semi-finished products (billets, blooms and slabs). This is not to be confused with liquid steel, which is steel poured.
The latest Worldsteel report shows global direct-reduced iron output increased by 5% year-on-year to 68.32 million tons during the nine months.
Global DRI output in September stood at 7.3 million tons to register a 1% decline YOY.
Production in 2018 grew 11.6% year-on-year to 84.3 million tons.
Iran was the second biggest producer in the world with 21.52 million tons of DRI production during the nine months under review to register a 15.8% year-on-year growth.
Iran’s September DRI output grew 11.4% year-on-year to hit 2.4 million tons.
The country produced a total of 25.54 million tons of DRI in 2018, up 31.6% YOY.
India, Iran's primary rival in DRI output, increased its nine-month production by 6.8% YOY to 27.2 million tons.
The largest decline was in Argentina where output decreased 37.3% YOY to 724,000 tons.
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 per year by 2025. Iranian steel mills have so far realized 34 million tons of the capacity target.
The country has been working to increase its iron ore processing capacity, including both DRI and hot-briquetted iron production, to reach its steelmaking expansion target.
According to Deputy Minister of Industries, Mining and Trade Khodadad Gharibpour, Iranian steel industry is an export-oriented one and exports more than 40% of its steel output.