MSC Focuses on Domestic Steel Market as Demand Grows

The priority of Mobarakeh Steel Company is to supply material required by Iran’s downstream manufacturers, while export is of secondary importance, the deputy head of sales at Iran’s largest steel company said.

“There has been a rise in domestic demand for steel in the last few months, as a result of government policies,” Mahmoud Akbari was also quoted as saying by S&P Global Platts, a London-based provider of energy and commodities information and a source of benchmark price assessments in the energy markets.

“The construction industry is still quiet but other sectors’ consumption was boosted by water projects and recent investments in the oil industry.”

Akbari noted that demand is also expected to grow as a result of gas pipeline projects and developments in the country’s auto industry.

“Currently, the biggest consumer of MSC products in the country is the pipe and profile industry,” he said, adding that MSC is developing products to supply Iran’s oil and gas industry and is now able to produce API grades of flat products, including X60, X65 and X70.

MSC posted a sharp decrease in exports in the first six months of the current Iranian year (started March 20) to 89,000 tons of flat products from 147,000 tons it exported in the previous month.

As a result of a 95% year-on-year jump in Iranian exports of hot-rolled-coil steel products to the European Union in 2015, the European Commission started anti-dumping investigations against Iran’s exports.

MSC Managing Director Bahram Sobhani has said that the imposition of any anti-dumping measures will have an adverse impact on Iran’s cooperation with European companies that supply engineering and plant equipment to Iranian steel projects.

An anti-dumping duty on hot rolled coil, if imposed, could result in MSC’s exports to Europe being replaced by exports of slab and coated strips, a market source told S&P Global Platts, as these products are not on the EC investigation list.

“MSC recently increased its crude steel capacity, and the country’s slab and strips capacity is more than domestic demand,” Sobhani said.