TEHRAN, May 28 (MNA) – Iranian steel manufacturers produced a total of 8.388 million tons of crude steel during the first four months of 2019, indicating a 6% growth compared with the corresponding period of 2018, according to the data released by the World Steel Association.

Iran’s April steel output stood at 2.165 million, up 2.8% year-on-year, the Brussels-based international trade body for the iron and steel industry added.

The growth in Iran’s steel production stood 1.2% over the average of global production during the period; the world’s 64 steelmakers produced a total of 599.857 million tons of steel over the four months, showing a 4.8% increase year-on-year.

China was the world’s largest crude steel producer with 314.961 million tons.

The East Asian country was followed by India with 36.05 million tons, Japan with 35.12 million tons, the United States with 27.74 million tons, and South Korea with 24.387 million tons.

Iran aims to become the world’s sixth largest steel producer as per its 20-Year Vision Plan, which targets annual production capacity expansion to 55 million tons and 20-25 million tons of exports per year by 2025. Iranian steel mills have so far realized just over 30 million tons of the capacity target.

Iran ranked 10th among global crude steel producers last year with an output of 24.52 million tons. The figure showed 17.7% year-on-year, according to Worldsteel.

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