Iranian steel mills produced a total of 17.8 million tons of crude steel in the first seven months of 2021, which indicate a 9.9% rise compared with the corresponding period of 2020.
As per the latest report of World Steel Association, Iran's July output amounted to 2.6 million tons, up 9% year-on-year.
The report ranks Iran the world’s 10th biggest crude steel producer.
China was the world’s largest crude steel producer in the seven-month period with 649.3 million tons of steel output, up 8% YOY.
It was followed by India with 68 million tons (up 28.7%), Japan with 56.1 million tons (up 16.2%), the United States with 49.5 million tons (up 18.5%), Russia with 44.9 million tons (up 9.2%), South Korea with 41.3 million tons (up 8.7%), Germany with 23.6 million tons (up 18.9%) and Turkey with 22.9 million tons (up 17.7%).
Iran is placed after Brazil (ninth) with 21 million tons, 22% higher than the corresponding period of 2020.
The world’s 64 steelmakers produced 1.17 billion tons of steel over the seven months under review, up 12.4% YOY. States located in Asia and Oceania collectively produced 853 million tons of the total.
The Middle East produced 25.3 million tons of crude steel in the seven months under review, posting an increase of 10% compared with the same period of last year.
Global steel output also experienced a 3.3% growth in July to 161.7 million tons.
World's major steel producers seem to have recovered their output in 2021, after the global closure of businesses and disruption in industrial operations, as a result of Covid-19 transmission in early 2019.
Crude steel is defined as steel in its first solid (or usable) form: ingots and semi-finished products (billets, blooms and slabs). This is not to be confused with liquid steel, which is steel poured.
The World Steel Association is one of the largest and most dynamic industry associations in the world, with members in every major steel-producing country. Worldsteel represents steel producers, national and regional steel industry associations and steel research institutes. Members represent around 85% of global steel production.
The 64 countries included in this table represent 85% of global steel production.
Iranian steel mills produced 29.02 million tons of crude steel in 2020, which indicate a 13.35% rise compared with 2019, the highest growth in output in the list of the world's top 10 producers.
Located in southwestern Isfahan, Mobarakeh Steel Company is the biggest steel producer in Iran and the Middle East and North Africa region.
Hit by Power Cuts
High summer demand has led to severe power and water shortage in the past few weeks in most regions, resulting in blackouts and dry taps.
Steel and cement factories were subsequently restricted by the Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (locally known as Tavanir) and were only allowed to work at 50% of their capacity from 12-8 a.m.
The abrupt ban on the two key sectors created shortages of steel and cement in local markets and prices increased overnight, creating new problems for most construction sectors.
“We have gone through the last few weeks without any restrictions [in supplying electricity to steel mills] since the media succeeded in raising awareness [about the need to save energy] and the industries cooperated,” Mohammad Hossein Motevalli-Zadeh, the CEO of Tavanir, was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
But he insisted that if people do not cooperate, “we may have to limit the consumption of some steel industries [again]”.
Due to extreme heat and the public’s failure to lower consumption, there were problems with electricity supply to the steel industry, he said recently.
Rasoul Khalifeh-Soltani, the head of Iranian Steel Producers Association, said at the heat of the blackouts that the power outages shut down 85% of steel production.
According to the Iranian Steel Producers Association’s latest report, Iran’s steel output in the fourth month of the current fiscal year (June 22-July 22) registered a noticeable fall compared with the previous month and the same period of last year.
Iranian steelmakers produced a total of 1.5 million tons of semi-finished steel in the fourth month of the current fiscal year (June 22-July 22), down 39.21% and 38.43% MOM and YOY respectively.
Billet and bloom made up 897,000 tons of semi-finished production, down 41.45% and 41.87% YOY and month-on-month respectively.
Slab output reached 604,000 tons to register a 33.33% decline year-on-year and 34.77% decline MOM.
The output of finished steel decreased by 41.05% YOY to 1.07 million tons, which is down 40.99% compared with the month before.
Long steel products’ share in the output of finished steel products stood at 565,000 tons share, posting a 45.46% decline compared with the similar period of last year and a 51.21% decline month-on-month.
Rebar production hit 458,000 tons, down 46.24% YOY and down 94.72% MOM. It was followed by beams with 56,000 tons, down 51.72% YOY, down 50.44% MOM, and L-beam, T-beam and other types with 51,000 tons, down 25% and 35.44% YOY and MOM respectively.
Production of flat steel registered a 35.24% decline year-nyear and 23.11% month-on-month with 509,000 tons.
Hot-rolled coil made up 506,000 tons of the production in this category, indicating a 33.15% decline YOY and 21.91% MOM, followed by cold-rolled coil with 176,000 tons, down 19.63% MOM and down 29.31% compared with the same period of last year and coated coil with 95,000 registered a 35.81% and 28.57% decline YOY and MOM respectively.
According to the ISPA data, Iran's output of direct reduced iron stood at 1.83 million tons, down 25.36% YOY and down 42.31% MOM.
