Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 21
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Over 1.366 million metric tons of crude steel were produced in Iran in January 2015, the World Steel Association said in its latest monthly report released Feb. 20.
The figure indicates an increase by 19.7 percent compared to the same month of preceding year.
Iran was the world's 14th biggest producer of steel in Jan. 2015. The country also stood at the first place among the Middle East countries.
Iran's crude steel production stood at 1.362 million metric tons in December 2014.
World crude steel production for the 65 countries reporting to the World Steel Association was 133.102 million metric tons in January, a 2.9 percent decrease compared to January 2014.
The 65 countries included in the World Steel Association statistics accounted for approximately 98 percent of total world crude steel production in 2013.
China was the biggest crude steel producer in the world in the first month of 2015 with about 65.5 million metric tons of production, followed by Japan (9 million metric tons), the US (7.4 million metric tons), India (7.1 million metric tons), Russia (6.1 million metric tons) and South Korea (5.8 million metric tons).
The Islamic republic produced 16.331 million metric tons of crude steel in 2014.
Iran's crude steel production reached 15.421 million metric tons in 2013, which was 6.6 percent more than its preceding year.
Iran was the world's 15th biggest producer of steel in 2013.
The world's total crude steel output in 2014 was around 1.636 billion metric tons, which is 1.1 percent more than 2013.
Follow the author on Twitter: @UmidNiayesh
