Iran’s raw steel production has witnessed a nearly 10% rise in the first quarter of this year.
Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development & Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) says the country produced right over 4 million tons of raw steel in the first three months of 2015, which shows a 9.6% increase from the same period last year.
IMIDRO announced that Iran’s sharp steel growth came at a time when the global output of the metal saw a 1.8% decline in that period, IRNA reported.
Major raw steel producers of Iran are the Mobarakeh Steel Mill, with approximately 47% of the market share, the Khuzestan Steel Company with about 23%, the Isfahan Foundry with about 20%, and the Iran National Steel Industries Group with some 10% of the market share.
According to a report by the World Steel Association (WSA), Iran is the largest producer of crude steel in the Middle East and Africa and 14th in the world, given the hike in its steel output.
Iran is among the 15 major mineral-rich countries of the world and exports its industrial and mineral products to more than a hundred countries.
Figures by the WSA show the global output surpassed 400 million tons in the first quarter of 2015.
China, which produces half of the world's steel, saw a decline of around 2% to clock 203.5 million tons in the period.
India retained its position as the world's third-largest producer with a production of 14.6 million tons after Japan.
The world number two saw a fall of 3% to report steel production of 26.74 million tons during the January-March period.
GHN/GHN