Iranian Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad-Reza Nemat-Zadeh said the country’s steel output has risen by 10 percent in 2016, but the world’s jumped only by 1 percent.
He said that Iran’s steel output should reach 55 million tons by 2026.
According to Nemat-Zadeh, Iran’s iron ore production has hit 75 million tons from 62 million tons, and Iran needs to double output of the product.
He further said that Iran’s concentrate production capacity has grown by 60 percent.
In June 2016, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) announced rise in Iran's steel production has pushed the country up on the list of global steel producers.
The data showed Iran ranked thirteenth on the list of 66 global steel producers after the country produced 1.645 million tons of the metal in May.
The international trade body for the iron and steel industry released its latest figures on global production, which showed a solid gain for Iran.
The figure indicated a rise from the same period last year, when Iran had produced 1.455 million tons of steel.
Iran’s 3.9-percentage point increase came as the global output suffered a decline of 2.2 percent in the first five months in 2016.
China, Japan and India topped the latest worldsteel list.
Iran is the biggest steel producer in the Middle East after Turkey, according to the World Steel Association. Output rose to 1.5 million tons in April from 1.3 million tons at the end of last year before the international sanctions were lifted in January.
The country has already devised serious plans to increase its steel production capacity to 55 million tons per year from the current level of roughly 17 million tons per year by 2025. The country’s export capacity is also expected to rise to above 13 million tons per year.