The secretary of the Iranian Steel Manufacturers Association said: ” Country’s export advantage in sponge iron is much higher than other products.”
According to Rasoul Khalifeh-Soltan, Secretary of Iranian Steel Manufacturers Association “In the past years, Iran steel industry has witnessed a steady growth rate both in production and exports, in coming years the trend will become more balanced.”
He added pointing to the recent growth in export of Iran steel products “In other words, if we didn’t get a balanced growth rate in exports from 2012-2013 with a growth rate of 7%, we would have been in trouble.”
Mr Rasoul Khalifeh-Soltan emphasized that we should look at the issue of exports with a long-term strategy in order to be able to meet the goals of growth. He said “If we think that every year we will grow in exports of long products then it is a misconception, as countries around Iran are building construction units and manufacturing units, they will definitely reduce the import price of long products from Iran.
He said export growth in products such as rebar, beams and ingots does not seem to be more than 2 to 3 MnT. However, if we want to have 14-15 MnT exports optimistically on the horizons, we need to export 7 to 8 MnT of slabs, blooms, billets and long products and 6 to 7 million tons of flat products.
The secretary said: “In order to reach 20 MnT of steel exports, the rest of the volume could be filled with sponge iron, which can be achieved within a 10-year period, because the country’s export advantage in sponge iron is much higher than other products.
| Export | Production | |||||
| Products | First 7 Months of last Persian Year | First 7 Months of current Persian Year | Y-o-Y | First 7 Months of last Persian Year | First 7 Months of current Persian Year | Y-o-Y |
| Beam | 128,000 | 99,000 | -23% | 597,000 | 566,000 | -5% |
| Rebar | 127,000 | 165,000 | 30% | 3,760,000 | 3,561,000 | -5% |
| Wire Rod | 32,000 | 154,000 | 381% | N/A | N/A | – |
| HRC | 845,100 | 195,060 | -77% | 4,101,000 | 4,421,000 | 8% |
| CRC | 125,000 | 7,000 | -94% | 1,023,000 | 1,386,000 | 35% |
| Coated Sheet | 17,000 | 40,000 | 135% | 608,000 | 898,000 | 48% |
| Other Steel | 22,000 | 30,000 | 36% | 196,000 | 483,000 | 146% |
| Billet and Bloom | 1,399,000 | 1,789,000 | 28% | 5,661,000 | 6,521,000 | 15% |
| Slab | 600,000 | 1,727,000 | 188% | 5,080,000 | 5,728,000 | 13% |
| DRI | 79,000 | 476,000 | 503% | 10,584,000 | 12,590,000 | 19% |
Source: ISPA
