The Iranian government has ordered the country's sole billet producer Khuzestan Steel Co. to stop exporting billets.
The request has been made out of concern over the continuously rising billet prices and the shortage of billet supplies in the local Iranian market.
Iran is heavily dependent on imports to satisfy domestic billet demand which cannot be met by Khuzestan Steel, the sole Iranian supplier of semi-finished products with a capacity of 2.2 million mt per year. Khuzestan Steel supplies billets only to state-owned steel rolling companies, in addition to performing exports. In the last Iranian year (21.03.2007-20.03.2008), Iran imported about four million mt of billet. Annual demand in Iran, however, is two times this figure at eight million mt per year.