Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.11 / Trend F.Milad /
Iran has produced 14.563 million tons of steel products in the first 10 months of the current Iranian Calendar year which began March 20, 2012.
The figure shows a 2.4 per cent increase in comparison to the same period in the previous year, the IRIB News Agency reported.
Iran has produced 12.364 million tons of crude steel in the aforementioned period which is 6.3 per cent more than the same time last year.
Some 1.44 tons of steel products were produced in the tenth calendar month (December 21 - January 19).
The World Steel Association announced in its latest report that Iran with a total production of 14.46 million tons ranked as the world's fifteenth largest crude steel producer in 2012.
Deputy Director of the Trade Promotion Organisation of Iran, Kioumars Fathollah Kermanshahi, said last month that Iran's crude steel production will reach 17.5 million tons in the current Iranian calendar year (which ends March 20).
Iran's annual crude steel consumption currently stands at 25 million tons, he said.
Iran plans to reach the production capacity of 55 million tons by 2025, Fathollah Kermanshahi added.
The deputy industry minister, Reza Fatemi-Amin, said on September 9, 2012, that Iran will no longer need to import steel products next year once the current steel production projects come on stream.
Fatemi-Amin also said that some seven million tons of crude steel is imported annually.
The Iranian Industry, Mine, and Trade Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari said in May 2011 that Tehran will become one of the world's main steel exporters by March 2016.
The Iranian Mines & Mining Industries Development & Renovation Organisation exported over 385 million dollars' worth steel in the first nine months of the current Iranian Calendar year which began March 20, 2012.
The amount shows a five percent rise in comparison to the same time last year, Mehr News Agency reported.
IMIDRO announced in December that four steel projects would come on stream in the first half of the next Iranian calendar year.
Once this takes place, some four million tons would be added to the country's sponge iron output capacity.
