Iran produced 6.63 million tons of crude steel in the first six months of 2011, up 11.6 percent compared to the same period in previous year, the World Steel Association (WSA) reported. Some 484.8 million tons of crude steel was produced in Asia during the mentioned period, showing 6.7 percent increase in comparison to corresponding time span the year before, the report added. According to the World Steel Association, Iran was the second leading steel producer in the Middle East in 2010 after Turkey. Iran also ranked 7th among the Asian producers. Iran will become one of the world’s main steel exporters by March 2016, Commerce Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari said in May. Iran plans to reach the production capacity of 42 million tons per year by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Socio-Economic Development Plan (March 2016). According to Ghazanfari, the nation’s steel production capacity is currently 19 million tons annually. “There are 106 industrial and mineral projects, worth some $29 billion dollar, underway in different cities of the country which will be gradually inaugurated by the end of the fifth five year development plan,” he added. Ghazanfari went on to note that 16 of these 106 projects, worth some $2 billion, will come on stream by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2012)