Iran’s aluminium production leaps 61% in the year to March, reports IMIDRO

Iran’s state-run institution ‘The Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organisation (IMIDRO) publicised a report that the nation’s aluminium production in the year to March 2021 leapt 61% from the previous year to nearly half a million tonnes.

The report stated that the total output in four major aluminium smelters in Iran had reached 0.4468 million tonnes, up from 0.2783 million tonnes reported for the year to March 20.

The report highlighted: “Iranian Aluminium Company (IRALCO) had the highest share of production at 185,000 tonnes. It was followed by Almahdi, Iran’s largest aluminium smelter on the Persian Gulf which includes Hormozal smelter, at 165,000 tonnes.

The smelter set up in late 2019 by Salco in southern Iran, topped production with 72,100 tonnes, whereas Iran Alumina Company produced 25,400 tonnes, showed IMIDRO figures.

“Production in four smelters rose by 38% to 41,000 tons in the final month of the fiscal year compared to the month to March 20, 2020”, said the report.

Since the US imposition of sanctions on Iran’s crude export in 2018, the nation has seen a rise in its mining and metals activities.

The exports of metals have been responsible for a significant portion of the government’s hard currency revenues in recent years, the report suggested.

In early March 2021, a senior IMIDRO official said: “Metals and mining sector in Iran had expanded by at least 6% over the last calendar year despite a global slowdown in the sector because of the spread of the coronavirus that forced closures at mines and production facilities around the world.”