Tehran, February 27: Iranian Minister of Industries and Mines Ali Akbar Mehrabian says the annual steel production capacity of the country will increase to 20 million tons in the near future.
The annual production capacity of the country stood at an average of 10 million tons at the end of Iran’s Fourth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2005-2010), Mehrabian told IRNA on Saturday.
He also predicted that the figure would double soon.
According to the latest report of the World Steel Association, Iran is the second leading steel producer in the Middle East.
Iran’s steel production rose 2.7 percent in the first half of 2010 to 5.9 million tons.
In July 2010, a major steel project came on stream in the city of Bonab in the northwestern province of East Azarbaijan and phase three of a major steel complex was inaugurated in the city of Natanz in the central province of Isfahan in June 2010.
The main steel mills of the country are located in Isfahan and Khuzestan provinces.
Major raw steel producers of the Islamic Republic of Iran include the Mobarakeh Steel Mill, with approximately 47 percent of the market share, the Khuzestan Steel Company with about 23 percent, the Isfahan Foundry with about 20 percent, and the Iran National Steel Industries Group with approximately 10 percent of the market share.
——–Agencies