Both Iran's apparent steel consumption and exports over April-September had risen on the year amid higher production, data from the Iranian Steel Producers' Association, or ISPA showed Wednesday.
Iran consumed 10.13 million mt of finished products during the first six months of the Iranian year over April-September, up 449,000 mt from the year-ago period. Over the same period, steelmakers and re-rollers produced 9.68 million mt of finished steel, up 11% on year.
Hot-rolled coil, or HRC, demand rose 13% on the year to 4.05 million mt, while demand of cold-rolled coil surged 40% to 1.5 million mt. Rebar consumption however, slipped 7% to 2.83 million mt.
Semi-finished steel exports rose 29% year on year to 3.76 million mt over April-September, but finished steel exports decreased to 576,000 mt, from 1.2 million mt in the year-ago period.
HRC is not the main steel export of the country after the European Commission in October imposed an antidumping duty of Eur57.50/mt on Iranian HRC producers.
Meanwhile, Iran's crude steel production rose 14% year on year to 10.44 million mt over April-September. Of this, 7.26 million mt was sold to the domestic market, and the other 3.19 million mt was exported. Exports had surged 86% year on year, the report said.
Output for the period also included 5.56 million mt of billet and 4.87 million mt of steel slab.
Iran is expected to export 8 million mt of steel within the current Iranian year ending March 2018, according to mines and metal state holding company, Imidro.
