Steel Output Up 9.6%; Oct. Growth Among Top 3

Over 14.8 million tons of crude steel were produced in Iran during the 10 months of 2016, registering a 9.6% increase year-on-year, the latest report released by World Steel Association shows.

According to WSA data, Iran’s crude steel production in October stood at 1.64 million tons, indicating a 23.9% rise compared with last year's corresponding period. The October growth rate was the third highest among all steel producing countries after Belgium and Thailand with a 39.1% and 25% growth respectively.

The October output also recorded a 3% rise compared to September.

Meanwhile, 65 steelmaking countries maintained their downtrend in production, although at a significantly diminished rate, as demand continues to recover in global markets. China’s steel output is still growing.

The global January-October output stood at 1.33 billion tons, down 0.1% Y-O-Y. October, however, witnessed a 3.3% rise in global production compared to the similar period of 2015 with a 136.5-million-ton aggregate output. Global production is showing promising signs for sustaining growth, as October output also rose 2.5% compared to September.

The growth was largely due to bolstered production in Asia, particularly China and India.

China, the world’s largest steel producer, increased output by 4% to 68.5 million tons last month, accounting for slightly more than half of the world’s steel production. Furthermore, the average capacity utilization rate of the 65 countries increased 1.4% to stand at 69.6%.

Standings in worldwide steel production remained unchanged as China stayed at the top spot with 672.9 million tons, followed by Japan with 87.4 million tons, India with 79.5 million tons, the United States with 65.6 million tons, Russia with 58.5 million tons, South Korea with 57 million tons, Germany with 35 million tons, Turkey with 27.4 million tons, Brazil with 25.6 million tons, Ukraine with 20.1 million tons, Italy with 19.4 million tons and Taiwan with 18.1 million tons.

Iran maintained its position as the world’s 14th largest steelmaker, as its January-October output placed it between Mexico (13th) with 15.6 million tons and France with 10.5 million tons of crude steel output.

The country also produced 10.28 million tons of steel products, such as beams, rebars, cold, hot-rolled and coated coils during the seven months of the current Iranian year (March 20–October 22), indicating a 4% drop in production volume compared with last year’s similar period.

Public and semi-privatized companies accounted for 6.53 million tons of the overall figure and the private sector for 3.75 million tons.

Iran exported 1.9 million tons of crude steel and 1.29 million tons of steel products during the seven months to October 21, up 103% and 5% respectively compared with last year's similar period.

Iran’s crude steel output stood at 16.1 million tons in 2015. The country aims to become the world’s sixth largest steel producer as per the 20-Year Vision Plan (2005-25), which envisions an annual production of 55 million tons of crude steel by the deadline. Iranian steel mills have so far materialized 31 million tons of the annual steel production capacity target.