WSA Report: Iran’s Steel Production Exceeds 1mln Tons in January

Iran came to be known as the world’s 17th steel producer with a total production of over 1mln tons of steel last month, the World Steel Association (WSA) announced.

According to the WSA’s latest report, Iran produced a total of 1.111mln tons in January.

The report said that Iran ranked 17th among the world’s 62 steel producers in January.

The world’s total steel production hit 124.799mln tons in January which showed a 0.8-percent growth in comparison with last year’s corresponding period.

Earlier this month, WSA reported that Iran produced 14.463mln tons of crude steel last year, and was named the largest producer of crude steel in the Middle-East and North Africa.

Iran produced 14.463 million tons of crude steel last year, and was named the first largest producer of crude steel in the Middle-East and North Africa, WSA said.

The country’s main steel mills are located in Isfahan and Khuzestan provinces.

Iran has risen its steel production output by more than 9 percent, the WSA announced in January.

Last month, Managing-Director of Mobarakeh Steel Company Mohammad Massoud Sameenejad announced that Iran “is the biggest steel producer in the Middle East and North Africa”.

“The WSA has named Iran as the biggest producer of steel in the Middle East and Africa in the same period,” Sameenejad said in December.

Elaborating on his company’s share in Iran’s steel production, he said that Mobarakeh Steel Company produced 46 percent of Iran’s steel output in the first 10 months of 2012.

Last year, an Iranian official announced that the production of steel in Iran has grown 5 million tons in the past two years despite the harsh sanctions imposed by the West against the country.

“Despite the intensified sanctions during the last two years, the capacity of Iran’s steel production has increased 5mln tons and we will be completely self-sufficient in the steel industry in the next three years,” Vice-President of Iran’s Steel Association Hamidreza Taherizadeh told FNA in July.