Tabas Parvadeh Coal Company accounted for 33,588 tons of the total output and Central Alborz Coal Company for the remaining 8,981 tons.
The sharp decline seems to be mostly due to a decline in TPCC’s output that reached 56,642 tons during the same period of last year.
The two companies extracted 190,107 tons of coal during the month under review and delivered about 33,043 tons of coal concentrates to their customers to register a 55% year-on-year fall.
Tabas Parvadeh Coal Company had a share of 23,824 tons, while Central Alborz Coal Company accounted for the remaining 9,219 tons.
Iranian coal mines, with about 1.15 billion tons of combined reserves, have the capacity to produce up to 3 million tons of coal concentrates annually.
Iranian steelmakers consumed around 2.5 million tons of coal concentrate in the last Iranian year (March 2019-20), of which 1.6 million (64%) were supplied by domestic mines and the remaining were procured through imports.
However, based on developments in the industries and with the new steel companies coming on stream, the country’s coal concentrate demand is projected to reach 4 million tons per year.
Experts believe that support from the Industries Ministry will help boost the annual coal extraction to 10 million tons, from which 5 million tons of concentrate could be produced.
There are reportedly 185 small- and large-scale coal mines in Iran, of which only 60% are active, IRNA reported.
Around 17,000 people are working in the coal sector, which can be almost doubled if the infrastructures are provided to revive the idle mines.