Iranian steel products hit new markets in Europe, Asia
An Iranian steel producer has forecasted that exports in the year to mid-march 2018 would reach eight million tons with the opening up of new markets in Europe and Asia.
Mehdi Sarlak, the head of Marketing Department at Esfahan Steel Company, told Trend News Agency that Iran exported five million tons of steel products in the year to March 2017 but the figure would exceed eight million tons this year.
Elaborating on the possible growth in the exports, he said that Iran exported steel products to the UK, Thailand and Indonesia for the first time in the fiscal year that began in March 2017.
This, he added, was achieved following a significant decline in the volume of exports from China due to a growth in domestic consumption.
The demand for Iran’s steel products has surged, he added, noting that the country plans to export about 200,000 tons of steel ingot to the new markets.
According to the official, Esfahan Steel Company exports about 1.1 million tons of steel products per year.
World Steel Association (WSA), through its latest report, suggested that the country produced 20.5 million tons of sponge iron during 2017, accounting for 28 percent of total global output.
Iranian Steel Producers Association says the industry produced over 16.073 million tons of crude steel during the nine months from March 21-December 21, 2017, indicating a growth of 16 percent compared to the figure for the same period of last year.
According to official figures, Iran exported 4.614 million tons of crude steel (an 80 percent increase year-on-year) and 1.075 million tons of various steel products during the nine-month period.