A new report by Iranian Steel Producers Association shows Iranian steelmakers have recorded a significant rise in exports during the first quarter of the current fiscal year (March 21-June 21) compared with last year’s corresponding period.
They exported a total of 1.62 million tons of semi-finished products in Q1, up 55% year-on-year.
Billet and bloom had the lion’s share of semis exports with an aggregate of 1.06 million tons, 26% higher than the previous corresponding period.
Slab exports stood at 563,000 tons during the period, up 176% YOY.
Exports of finished steel products jumped by 125% to 873,000 tons during the three months under review.
Rebar accounted for the largest portion of finished steel products exported from Iran during the period, with 684,000 tons, marking a 142% growth YOY. This is while beam exports amounted to 36,000 tons, up 33% YOY.
Nearly 64,000 tons of L-beam, T-beam and other types were also exported from Iran during the period, recording a 94% YOY rise.
Hot-rolled coil exports hit 57,000 tons, registering a 171% growth compared with Q1 of the year before.
Cold-rolled coil with 1,000 tons, registered an 89% decline year-on-year.
Coated coil with 31,000 tons, up 107% YOY, was the other finished steel product exported from Iran.
The export of direct-reduced iron increased by 1,505% YOY to 321,000 tons, ISPA figures show.
Imports
According to ISPA, imports of semi-finished steel stood at 1,000 tons in Q1, unchanged compared with last year’s corresponding period.
Iran did not import any billet and bloom in the same period, which stood at 1,000 tons year-on-year.
Slab imports stood at 1,000 tons, though Iran had not imported any slab in the last year's same period.
Imports of finished steel rose by 2% YOY to 194,000 tons. The imports mostly included HRC with 45,000 tons, down 48%; CRC with 79,000 tons, up 80%; coated coil with 50,000, up 4%; L-beam, T-beam and other types with 9,000 tons, up 29%; rebar with 8,000 tons, up 60% and beam with 3,000 tons, up 100%.
Production
The output of semi-finished products stood at 8.07 million tons during the period, up 6% year-on-year.
Billet and bloom made up 4.88 million tons of semi-finished production, up 7% YOY.
Slab output reached 3.2 million tons to register a 6% year-on-year rise.
The output of finished steel increased by 7% YOY to 5.4 million tons.
Long steel products had a 3.1 million-ton share in the output of finished steel products, posting a 16% growth compared with the similar period of last year.
Rebar production stood at 2.55 million tons (up 17% YOY). It was followed by beams with 318,000 tons (up 7% YOY) and L-beam, T-beam and other types with 232,000 tons (up 20% YOY).
The production of flat steel with 2.3 million tons registered a 3% YOY decline in the three-month period.
Hot-rolled coil made up 2.25 million tons of the production in this category, showing a 2% decline compared with the similar period of last year; followed by cold-rolled coil with 650,000 tons, down 1% compared with the same period of last year; and coated coil with 398,000 (up 24%).
Iran's output of direct reduced iron grew by 8% to 8.76 million tons, ISPA data show.
Iranian steel mills produced a total of 12.5 million tons of crude steel in the first five months of 2021, which indicate a 9.2% rise compared with the corresponding period of 2020.
As per the latest report released by the World Steel Association, Iran's May output amounted to 2.6 million tons, up 7.7% 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 five-month period with 473.1 million tons of steel output, up 13.9% YOY. It was followed by India with 48.6 million tons (up 33.6%), Japan with 40 million tons (up 9.1%), the United States with 34.8 million tons (up 10.6%), Russia with 31.9 million tons (up 7.9%), South Korea with 29.3 million tons (up 6.9%), Germany with 17 million tons (up 13.6%) and Turkey with 16.3 million tons (up 21.2%).
Iran is placed after Brazil (ninth) with 14.9 million tons, 20.3% higher than the corresponding period of 2020.
The world’s 64 steelmakers produced a total of 837.5 million tons of steel over the five months under review, up 14.5% YOY. Countries located in Asia and Oceania collectively produced 616.5 million tons of the total.
The Middle East produced 17.8 million tons of crude steel in the five months under review, posting an increase of 8.1% compared with the same period of last year.
Global steel output also experienced a 16.5% growth in May to 174.4 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 Covid-19 spread in early 2020.
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 around 85% of global steel production.
Iranian steel mills produced a total of 29.02 million tons of crude steel in 2020, which indicate a 13.35% rise compared with 2019, the highest growth in output on the list of world's top 10 producers.
Order to Cut Power Consumption
Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) recently ordered steel and cement production factories to reduce electricity consumption by 10%, otherwise their electricity will be cut.
"The measure is in line with plans to alleviate the worsening power shortages facing the country … Steel and cement producers are recommended to halt their activities for 2-3 weeks and use the time for the repair and maintenance of their equipment," Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, Tavanir's spokesman, was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
Iran’s electricity consumption has reached unprecedented levels this summer amid high temperatures nationwide.
The manufacture of steel and related products is an energy-intensive process.
The measure to have steelmakers drastically cut electricity consumption will inevitably drive down their production.
