Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade said on Monday that the country's share in total steel production in the Middle East is 62 percent, and plans to further increase this share. Iran's steel industry remains in good shape despite U.S. sanctions.
Reza Rahmani made remarks at the opening ceremony of the sponge iron plant with an annual production capacity of 1.5 million tons in the Baft district in Kerman province in southeastern Iran.
According to the official, Iran has reached a balanced steel production chain, in which all stages of production, including development, implementation, manufacture and operation, are carried out by Iranian specialists and with domestic knowledge and technology.
Baft Steel Plant was officially opened on Monday by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to further increase the country's steel production capacity and use its huge reserves of metals and minerals.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Rahmani noted that the world steel production growth amounted to about 3.5 percent last year, while for Iran this figure reached 6.5 percent.
According to him, over the past few years, the volume of steel production in Iran has grown significantly, and the country has risen from 13th to 10th place in the list of the largest world steel producers in the latest rating of the World Steel Manufacturers Association (WSA).
Mentioning the huge potential of Kerman province for mining, Rahmani noted that so far more than 20,000 square kilometers of mineral exploration have been carried out in Kerman province, and this year another 20,000 square kilometers are on the agenda.
In conclusion, he called on domestic and foreign companies active in this field to take the Iranian mining sector seriously for their future investments.
At the end of January, the WSA announced that Iran ranks 10th among the world's steel producers in 2018 with a production of 25 million tons.
Iran pushed Italy, Taiwan and Ukraine to become the 10th largest steel producer in the world by 2018.
