Iran’s steel production down 50%

Steel production in Iran has declined by 50 percent in the past three months, a member of the country’s steel producers’ association has told.

Reza Shahrestani who was speaking about why steel exports to Afghanistan have been reduced said that authorities have rationed steel to first satisfy domestic demand and supply foreign customers according to availability.

Bloomberg in an article about Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the West on Friday reported that Iran’s steel production is up by ten percent and the growth has topped China the pace of Chinese production.

Bloomberg took its information form World Steel Association (WSA) that apparently used misleading data supplied by the Iranian government that claimed production increased by 9 percent in July.

WSA is not the only international group that has to rely on Iran’s official data. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank among others have no presence on the ground and independent research groups are not allowed by the Islamic republic to operate in the country.

Bloomberg also claimed that Russia and China were assisting Iran’s economy, while there have been no significant Russian or Chinese investments in Iran since former US president Donald Trump withdrew from the Obama-era nuclear agreement in 2018 and imposed crippling sanctions.

Russian trade with Iran is around a modest $2 billion sum annually and trade with China is down due to US sanctions. The only positive factor is that China clandestinely continues to buy some Iranian oil, with most of the profits going to middlemen rather than to the government in Tehran.

The CEO of Hormozgan Steel told local media in July that power cuts have put the lives of steel workers in danger and have cost steel producers in Hormozgan province $18 million in lost revenue.