November 20, 2008

Khuzestan Steel to suspend slab exports

Iran’s Khuzestan Steel has been requested by the government to stop exporting slab, in order to relieve soaring slab prices due to tight supply at home.

Iran’s steel mills have relied on importing slab source for a very long time; Khuzestan is the only slab manufacturer in Iran, supplying 2.2 million tonnes per year of slab for the domestic market and the remainder for export.

Iran imported around 4 million tonnes slab during the period from March 21st 2007 to March 20th 2008 with yearly demand being 8 million tonnes.