TEHRAN - Iranian Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade Reza Fatemi Amin on Wednesday said that Iran has moved up three places in the global ranking of top steel producers to seventh position.
Making the remarks to reporters on the sidelines of a Cabinet Meeting, Fatemi Amin said that Islamic Republic of Iran has been the top 10 steel-producing countries in recent years, especially 2022, and according to statistics, Iran’s steel industry’s ranking increased to seventh place
World Steel Association (worldsteel) reported that Iran had the largest growth rate in steel production in the world in 2022.
Worldsteel figures showed that Iran’s steel production had reached a total of 30.6 million metric tons (mt) last year, up 8% from 2021.
Global steel output dropped by 4.2% year on year in 2022 to reach 1.878 billion mt, showed the figures which also indicated that the global energy crunch and the war in Ukraine had seriously affected steel production in Europe last year.
Major European producers reported cuts to steel output by as much as 19% in 2022 while production in Ukraine contracted by more than 70% over the same period, according to the worldsteel figures.
The figures showed that Iran had remained the 10th largest steel producer in the world last year.
Iran has increasingly relied on hard currency revenues earned from its mining and metals exports since 2018 when the United States imposed sanctions on the country’s oil exports.
Iran is now a net exporter of steel with around 7 million mt of annual shipments. It comes nearly a decade after the country reported imports of some 3.5 million mt per year.