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Friday, April 19, 2024 4:51 GMT
Iran expects its steel exports to touch 10 million tons in the year to March 19, 2020 despite “tyrannical” sanctions imposed on the country by the US. The exports will bring in four to five billion dollars for the country which is hard pressed for money amid an aggressive US push to sink Iran’s oil revenues to zero, head of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) Khodadad Gharibpour said, reported Press TV.Earlier this month, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Iran’s metals sector, targeting the construction, manufacturing, textiles, mining, aluminum, copper, iron, and steel industries, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. They came on the back of the first set of sanctions imposed last May on export revenues from Iran’s industrial metals sector which the US government said constituted 10% of the country’s export economy."The measure put “other nations on notice that allowing Iranian steel and other metals into your ports will no longer be tolerated,” US President Donald Trump said in a statement at the time.Last month, the US government warned against exports of steelmaking materials to Iran, including graphite electrodes and needle coke.However, Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Reza Rahmani put the damper on Washington’s haughty grandstanding, saying Iranian producers had obtained the technology to make graphite electrodes.“The aim of harsh American sanctions on the metal industry is to stop Iran’s exports, but this did not happen practically and we are seeing a boom in exports,” Gharibpour said.Over the current Iranian year, he said, exports of National Iranian Copper Industries Company and Mobarakeh Steel Company have risen by more than US$1 billion.Iran is a leading producer of steel in the world, with officials saying exports continue despite the US sanctions. The country plans to raise steel output to 55 million tons a year by 2025, of which 20 to 25 million tons would be earmarked for export. Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Jafar Sarghini said last month Iran has currently 35 million tons of steel production capacity. Several steel units with an overall capacity of 10 million tons are currently being built with above 50% of physical progress, while another 10 million tons of capacity has been defined to be established, he said. - Iran Daily