The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has announced that it has taken action against steel, aluminum and iron companies operating within Iran’s metals sector. OFAC said that one of the given companies is Tara Steel Trading GmbH, which is the Germany-based subsidiary of Iran’s largest steel manufacturer Mobarakeh Steel Company, while others are UAE-based sales agents and trading companies Pacific Steel FZE, Better Future General Trading Co LLC and Tuka Metal Trading DMCC, which are all majority-owned by Mobarakeh Steel Company.
“The Iranian regime continues to use profits from metals manufacturers and foreign sales agents to fund destabilizing behavior around the world,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement.
OFAC said that Mobarakeh Steel and these sales agents generated tens of millions of dollars annually from the exports of its products, contributing to the billions of dollars generated overall by Iran’s steel, aluminum, copper, and iron sectors.
Mobarakeh Steel accounts for almost one percent of Iran’s gross domestic product and was previously blacklisted, OFAC said.
Three Iran-based aluminum, steel and iron producers South Aluminum Company, Sirjan Jahan Steel Complex and Iran Central Iron Ore Company, which collectively contribute to the equivalent of billions of dollars generated overall in sales and export of Iranian metals annually, have been blacklisted.
Moreover, sanctions have been imposed on Global Industrial and Engineering Supply Ltd. OFAC stated that the company which had addresses in China and Hong Kong, had transferred 300 mt of graphite to a blacklisted Iranian entity in 2019, adding that graphite is a material that has a vital importance for Iran’s metals industry.