Iranian Steelmakers Suffered $5-6 Billion in Lost Profit 

Iranian steelmakers have suffered gas supply restrictions in winter in recent years, leading to a decline in output and at times the closure of many small- and medium-scale production lines.
Collating the lost output with the global prices of last year, Vahid Yaqoubi, the deputy head of Iran Steel Association, said the steel industry suffered $5-6 billion in losses due to the gas outage, Mehr News Agency reported.
In the winter (fourth quarter) of last Iranian year (Dec. 22, 2021-March 20), Iran faced a huge imbalance in gas production and consumption, and according to Oil Minister Javad Owji, there was a deficit of 200-250 million cubic meters of natural gas during the period. Although this imbalance did not cause outage for domestic consumers, it had remarkable consequences for large industries such as steel and petrochemicals.
“In last year’s Q4, production did not decline in some plants because steelmakers such as Mobarakeh Steel Company are strategic, but on the other hand, new steelmakers and DRI production plants that started operations in the past few years were hard hit,” Yaqoubi said.