Page 56 - IRANRptSep21

9.1.11 Metallurgy & mining sector news
Seven in 10 of Iran’s cement producers join Tehran’s IME commodities
Iran’s aluminium output up 26% y/y to 175,281 tonnes in the first four Persian months
Iran’s tyre output up 10% y/y in Persian Q1
Iran’s iron ore discoveries ‘grow by billion tonnes in six years’
As many as 56 of Iran’s 78 cement producers, or 72%, have joined the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME), a commodities exchange in Tehran, Abbas Yaghoubi, director of commodity exchange market operations at IME informed Mehr News Agency.
All of Iran’s cement would eventually be traded on the exchange, he added. Cement trading on the exchange has reached 1mn tonnes/week during August, climbing from around 0.1mn tonnes/week, Yaghoubi also reportedly stated.
The IME sets a base offering volume for each cement production factory. The cement producers still outside of the IME have been asked to join by the exchange.
The Iranian Cement Industry Association was said to have written to them on this matter.
Aluminium production in Iran expanded by 26.3% y/y to 175,281 tonnes in the first four months of the Persian calendar year (March 21 to July 22), according to the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO).
Four producers account for almost all of Iran’s aluminium manufacturing. The production level was 138,781 tonnes in the first four months of the previous Persian calendar year.
Iranian tyre production gained by 10% y/y in the first quarter of the Persian calendar year (started March 21) to over 11.137mn units, weighing 60,447 tonnes, according to Mehr News Agency.
Iran has 11 active tyre production companies including Goldstone, Kavir and Yazd Tire. The country is a regional leader in tyre-making, operating with a low cost of production, exporting regionally and benefiting in terms of export prices from the huge devaluation seen in the Iranian rial (IRR) in the past three years. Regional export markets include Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
In the Persian 1Q, motorcycle tyre production saw the biggest jump, with the number of units moving up 58% y/y. Some 2,062 such tyres were produced. More than 5.89mn car tyres were made.
In August last year, the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade said that increasing investment in tyre production in the country was necessary as Iran's transport fleets were growing and demand remained strong.
Iran's total annual capacity for the production of tyres is 426,000 tonnes. The country accounts for 41% of regional tyre production.
The official data showed several tyre-making enterprises were operating at 60-70% of their capacity because of dependence on imported raw materials.
Around one billion tonnes of additional iron ore reserves have been identified in Iran over the past six years, according to the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (Imidro), as reported by Tehran’s Financial Tribune.
Total iron ore reserves reportedly stand at 2.74bn tonnes.
The newspaper report added that Imidro said explorations for more reserves were currently under way in 30 provinces, across 107 zones spread over 660,000 square kilometres.
56 IRAN Country Report September 2021 www.intellinews.com