Since the Trump administration a year ago withdrew from the 2015 multilateral agreement, which was supposed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, it has sought to increase pressure on that country's regime. As part of these efforts, on May 8, the United States imposed sanctions on national exports of steel and other industrial metals, which, according to the White House, are the largest source of non-oil export earnings.
“Today’s actions are focused on Iran’s revenues from exports of industrial metals — 10 percent of its export economy — and inform other countries that the admission of Iranian steel and other metals to your ports will no longer be allowed,” said President Donald Trump.
S & P Global analysts have suggested that the new sanctions "can change little in the short term for Iranian steel exporters or their customers abroad in a trading environment that has already been limited to existing secondary sanctions and anti-dumping measures." She quotes the secretary of the Iranian Syndicate of Steel Pipe and Profile Manufacturers, who notes that “in the face of previous sanctions, Iranian manufacturers opened new markets in Southeast Asia, and since then exports to neighboring countries have increased.”
