Iran’s steel output rose in the seven months to July despite a global fall in production and despite power cuts imposed on steel producers in the country this summer.

Figures released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) cited by the IRIB News on Saturday showed that Iran had produced 18.4 million metric tons (mt) of raw steel in January-July, up 2.9% from the same period last year.

Iran remained the 10th largest steel supplier in the world in the seven months to July, the figures showed, which also indicated that total steel output by seven major steel producing nations of the world had dropped by 0.7% over the same period.

The increased Iranian steel output comes despite the fact that industries in the country have been grappling with reduced electricity supplies in recent months.

The Iranian Energy Ministry cut power supplies to major steel mills in mid-summer as it was facing rising demand for cooling in the country’s household sector.

That has caused concerns across an industry which has thrived in recent years by increasing its exports and creating more jobs.

Worldsteel figures, which partly relies on data supplied by Iran’s state metals and mining company IMIDRO, showed that Iran’s steel output had dropped by 18.7% year on year in July to reach 1.8 million mt.

However, the output accounted for nearly a half or 48.6% of the total steel production in the West Asia region which includes Iran and seven Arab steel producing countries.

The fall in Iran’s steel output in July was the largest recorded among 71 steel producing countries, according to the worldsteel data which showed that Brazil had reported a 11.6% rise in production in the same month, the largest among all producers.