According to the statistics released by the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization, Iran was the major steel producer in the Middle East, experiencing production growth in 11 months of the year 2009.
According to the report, after Turkey, Iran is ranked as the second largest steel producer in the aforementioned period.
Crude steel production in Turkey has reached to 22,949,000 tonnes in 11 months of 2009, while the sum of produced output in Iran was 9,983,000 tonnes in the same period. It can be said that the production of crude steel in Iran was not even half of the output in Turkey but the rate of production in Turkey shows a decrease compared to the same period in 2008, on the other hand, Iran has experienced 10.3% growth in the aforementioned time.
It is worthy to mention that the declining trend of crude steel production in Turkey slowed down month by month and it is predicted that the production of output in Iran's western neighbor will reach the normal level in 2010.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia is considered as one of the largest steel producers in the region, producing 4,278,000 tonnes of crude steel in 11 months of 2009, yet the figure displays 2.6% decline compared to the same period in 2008. Likewise, Qatar produced 938,000 tonnes of crude steel in aforementioned period displaying 31.4% drop compared to the preceding year.
With 14.3% drop, production of crude steel in Egypt reached to 4,988,000 tonnes in 2009, hence the African country can be named as the third major steel maker in the Middle East.
Based on the aforementioned facts, it can be concluded that in 11 months of 2009 only Iran has not witnessed the decline of crude steel production in the Middle East.