Iran’s imports of long products fall by almost half

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Rebar imports fell to 145,000 tonnes from 267,000 tonnes in the corresponding period in the previous year, according to data recently published by the Iranian customs authorities.

Beam imports also dropped significantly over the nine months. Volumes of I-beam, H-beam and U-beam showed year-on-year falls of 74%, 34% and 65%, respectively.

Iran imported 84,000 tonnes of I-beam, 42,000 tonnes of H-beam and 46,000 tonnes of U-beam over the period, compared with 318,000 tonnes, 65,000 tonnes and 129,000 tonnes respectively.

Billet import levels held steady, however, going down by only 24,000 tonnes year-on-year to 1,785,000 tonnes.

International trading sanctions against Iran are a major factor in the reduction of import volumes.

Depreciation of the Iranian rial against hard currencies has also damaged the Iranian import market.

“Import of some items is not profitable at present, and this is one of the reasons behind a fall in imports,” one trader said.

“The price of ready stock material in Iran [for some items] is less than the price of new orders,” he added, “and this is why Iranian traders have reduced their orders.”