October 12, 2008

Iranian private steel sector can supply 7 million tonnes

Tehran Times reported that Iran has the capacity to produce 20 million tonnes of steel annually.

The report cited Mr Taghi Bahrami Noshahr manager of Iran's Steel Producers Association as saying that "Currently, 10 million tonnes of steel is produced annually by the state run sector and 3 million tonnes by the private sector.”

He said that “In case the private sector is supported by the government, it will meet the domestic demand for 7 million tonnes of steel.”

Mr Noshahr also referred to the 40% rise of steel import in the previous Iranian calendar year ended March 19th 2008 and noted that in the event of allocating sufficient budget for supplying the required raw materials and launching the private run steel mills not only will the domestic markets be adequately supplied but also exports will be feasible and there would be no need to import steel from China, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan as was the case in 2007.