TEHRAN – Iran’s steel production declined by 10.6 percent in the first six months of the current Iranian year (March 21-September 22), mainly due to energy imbalances and the impact of the war, a senior industry official said.
Vahid Yaghoubi, executive deputy head of the Iranian Steel Producers Association, said output declined across all steel product categories, with semi-finished steel production also falling by 10.6 percent.
Speaking at a meeting of the Iran Steel and Mining Industries Think Tank reviewing the industry’s six-month performance, Yaghoubi said the production decline had stood at 25 percent at the beginning of the year but had gradually eased month by month to 10.6 percent.
Semi-finished steel production exceeded 13 million tons during the period, he added.
Yaghoubi said that even excluding the effects of the war, steel production had continued to decline, with output of flat steel products down 25 percent and slab production falling 37.5 percent.
The decline in slab production had previously reached 75 percent but was reduced to 37.5 percent following the reconstruction of damaged production facilities, he said.
Overall production of steel products fell by 7.4 percent to 9.903 million tons in the first half of the year.
Yaghoubi added that the steel industry’s export value had dropped to $6.5 billion, its lowest level since 2016.
He also pointed to a sharp rise in energy costs, saying natural gas prices had increased 53-fold over the past seven years, while steel product prices had risen only 14-fold. Gas costs for Iranian steelmakers are now about twice the regional average, he said.
EF/
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: tehrantimes.com
