The country's May output hit 2.35 million tons to witness a year-on-year growth of 8.9%, according to the Brussels-based international trade body for the iron and steel industry.
Iran’s world ranking remains unchanged compared to Worldsteel's previous monthly report: 10th biggest crude steel producer.
The country is placed between Brazil (ninth) with 12.14 million tons of production and Vietnam (11th) with 9.02 million tons, the new report shows.
The world’s 64 steelmakers produced a total of 768.683 million tons of steel over the five-month period, down 5.2% YOY.
Global steel output stood at 147.775 million tons in May, indicating an 8.7% decrease YOY.
China was the world’s largest crude steel producer with 411.75 million tons of steel output in the five-month span, up 1.9% YOY.
The giant steel producer was followed by Japan with 36.6 million tons, India with 35.85 million tons, the United States with 31.33 million tons, Russia with 29.85 million tons, South Korea with 27.41 million tons, Germany with 15.27 million tons and Turkey with 13.49 tons.
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 per year by 2025.
The country’s current steel production capacity stands at over 35 million tons per year.
Steel Production Capacity to Rise
According to a recent report by Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization on under-construction steel production units, a total of 19.1 million tons will be added to Iran’s annual steel production capacity by the time all these units become complete in the fiscal 2023-24.
The addition of 19.1 million tons by the time the under-construction projects come on stream to the current capacity means the aggregate output capacity will reach 54.1 million tons by March 2024, only 900,000 tons short of the target, for reaching which Iranian steelmakers will have one more year.
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 a 8.37% increase compared with the year before.
According to the Iranian Steel Producers Association's latest report, 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 by 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 here 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).
Direct-reduced iron production stood at 27.9 million tons during the 12-month period, indicating an 6% rise YOY.