Deputy Minister of the metallurgical and mining industry and trade of dariusH Esmaeili said in an interview with state television that production of steel billets in Iran will exceed 30 million tons in the current Iranian calendar year (ending March 20, 2021).
currently, the Islamic Republic is the 10th largest steel producer in the world and plans to climb to the 8th place to the 1404 Iranian calendar year (will start in March 2025).
According to the official, the agenda of the Ministry of industry to increase steel production in the country to 55 million tons by 2025, which annually requires 160 million tonnes of iron ore.
"Taking into account the reserves of iron ore in the country, constituting 2.8 billion tons, we need new developments in this area, because when the annual capacity of steel production will reach 55 million tons, the current production levels of iron ore can ensure the industry's only 12-13 years", - said the official.
He also noted that during the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 19), the country produced over 90 million tons of iron ore, of which only seven percent were exported.
the Reduction of iron ore exports is due to the fact that the leader of the Islamic revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei called on the government to prevent the export of raw minerals for processing in the country for the production of products with higher added value.
After the remarks of the leader of the government has imposed a 25 percent duty on the export of mineral commodities (including iron ore) on 23 September 2019.
the Ministry considers that the duty will stimulate production of more processed minerals like pellets and concentrate, instead of selling the raw ore.
According to Esmaeili, 10 years ago, Iran exported over 20 million tonnes of unprocessed iron ore, and last year this figure fell to about six million tons.
Earlier today, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani savilthat his country is experiencing the most difficult year because of the US sanctions, which were strengthened pandemic COVID-19. As you know, on Thursday last week the US expanded its sanctions on the largest metallurgical company of Iran and its subsidiaries abroad.
