Iranian miners feel pressure from the Indian competitors in exporting iron ore to China. Despite that local companies continue to ramp up production of concentrate in order to feed domestic steelmaking facilities.
Currently, Iranian iron ore producers, which rely on exports to maintain performance, experience some challenges in the global market amid stiffer competition with India, which strengthens its position, first of all in China, after the removal of the export duty on low-grade iron ore concentrate (below 58% Fe).
“The most critical problem for Iranian miners, mainly private is a regular supply of medium- and low-grade iron ore from India which started after six years ban. It really kills the export business,” Keyvan Jafari Tehrani, Member of the Board and Head of International Affairs at IROPEX, explained Metal Expert.
Despite such challenges with overseas sales Iranian miners are still increasing iron ore output, supported by growing crude steel production. During the first three months of the current Persian year (March 21 – June 22, 2017), concentrate production surged by 37.6% to 9.49 million t year-on-year, according to IMIDRO. Gol-e-Gohar Company showed the most impressive results attributed not only to solid steel production but export sales as well.
Source: Metal Expert
