The secretary general of the Iranian Steel Producers' Association, Mr. Rasoul Khalifeh Soltan, has stated that the country's private steel sector needs to import more billets in order to fully satisfy the domestic demand for long products.
During the past Iranian year 1385 (ended March 20, 2007), the Iranian private steel sector produced a total of 2.15 million metric tons of long products, supplying 20-25 percent of the market needs for rebar.
However, Mr. Khalifeh Soltan emphasized that the country's private steel sector will be able to satisfy all market demand for rebar if either it or the government manages to import enough billets. He went on to say that the Iranian private steel sector has a designed capacity of five million metric tons of rebar per year, which cannot be fully used due to the billet shortage.