TEHRAN - Iran’s steel mills should be capable of producing a total of 30 million tons of products by 2010, a steel industrialist said Tuesday, putting the country’s current steel production at 13 million tons. “Iran ranks 21 in the world table of steel production while we stand 12th in terms of having access to (iron ore) resources,” Bahrami stated, noting that only one percent of the country’s mineral resources have been extracted so far, ‘while many countries have tapped more than 36 percent of their resources’. He said that China produces 243 million tons of steel every year, ‘while technology shortages have hindered progress in Iran’s steel industry, which started operation 40 years ago’.

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