Mehrdad Akbarian, the head of the Iranian Iron Ore Producers and Exporters Association, at a conference on resilience in the country’s iron and steel chain in Isfahan stated:“ The country’s steel production capacity is higher than that of raw materials; in order to solve this problem,  we have to increase the production capacity of raw materials.”

Iron ore reserves are declining, and the grade of the reserves is decreasing, so we require new explorations. In this situation, we need smart imports of raw materials for steel production, overseas mining, mineral diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and utilizing low-grade reserves by enhancing technologies.

 Weak imbalance management also negatively affects mineral explorations. The cost of production and export in the steel chain is high; 60% of the cost of the ore consumed by steel units relates to transportation.