IMIDRO: Over 3,824,000 Tons Unprocessed Steel Produced In Past Three Months

Tehran, June 27, IRNA -- Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) said on Tuesday that based on early estimates, Iranian unprocessed steel producers managed to raise production of the strategic metal to more than 3,824,000 tons over the past three months. IMIDRO said steel production plants had within the same period the previous year produced 3,557,000 tons of steel. Within the first three months of this year, more than 4,365,000 tons of different kinds of steel products, including iron bar, various types of sheets, rods and junctions, were produced, showing 1.4 percent increase than the target. Last year, the three-month production of steel stood at 4,305,000 tons. According to the statistics released by World Steel Association, Iran was the second big steelmaker in Middle East in the first nine months of the last Iranian year (started on March). With more than 11.9 percent increase, Turkey has produced 20,926,000 tons of unprocessed steel and turned as the largest producer of the output in the Middle East in the first nine months of 2010. With a growth of 4.1 percent, Iran produced about 8 million and 785 thousand tons of unprocessed steel and gained the second place in the Middle East. Likewise, Egypt’s crude steel production reached 4,667,000 tons, with a 14.7 percent hike, thus the country ranked as the third producer of unprocessed steel in Middle East. With 9.4 percent growth, Saudi Arabia produced about 808,000,000 tons of unprocessed steel and owned the fourth place, while Qatar was ranked the fifth with producing 468,000,000 tons of unprocessed steel and 47.1 percent growth compared to last year. But in Middle East, excluding Turkey and Egypt the production of unprocessed steel in the aforementioned period reached 14,061,000 tons, indicating 8.8 percent hike. Unprocessed steel production in 66 countries reached 112,000,000 tons in September 2010, displaying 0.9 percent boost compared to the same period the previous year./end