TEHRAN- Production of steel products in Iran has risen 9.5 percent during the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-December 20, 2020), as compared with the corresponding period in the past year, according to the data released by the Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry.

The ministry’s data put the country’s steel products output at 19.1 million tons in the nine-month period of this year, while the figure was 17.5 million tons in the same time span of the previous year.

Iran’s export of steel products in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19, 2020) rose 27 percent compared to its preceding year.

As reported, the country’s major steel producers managed to export about 7.33 million tons of the products in the previous year.

Iranian government levied a 25-percent duty on the exports of raw minerals (especially iron ore) since late September 2019, as the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has urged the government to prevent the exports of raw minerals in order to be processed in the country for making products with more added value.

The industry ministry believes that the duty is going to encourage the production of more processed minerals such as pellets and concentrate instead of selling the raw minerals.

Deputy Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Darioush Esmaili has said that while 10 years ago Iran exported more than 20 million tons of unprocessed iron ore, the figure fell to six million tons last year.

MA/MA