Iranian steel production rose to 20.6 million tonnes in the first 10 months of 2018, up 19 per year-on year, data by the World Steel Association has showed.

Output grew 10.6 percent to 2.07 million tonnes in October, the Brussels-based international trade body for iron and steel said.

Iran is now the world’s 11th biggest steel producer, ranked between Italy with 20.61 million tonnes and Taiwan with 19.24 million tonnes.

Iran’s thriving steel industry is the target of US sanctions imposed in August and the growth shows the country's bid to keep expanding the industry is not a fluke.

Last month, the Trump administration announced sanctions on Mobarakeh Steel Company, the largest steel maker in the Middle East and North Africa and one of the largest industrial complexes operating in Iran.

Iran’s steel industry has been growing rapidly in recent years in line with the country’s ambitious plan to raise output to 55 million tonnes per year by 2015.

Iran’s steel exports are already facing an increasingly hostile terrain in Europe where the bloc’s executive body, the European Commission, has levied trade tariffs against Iranian products.

Last October, the European Union decided to hit hot-rolled steel from Iran with trade tariffs despite initial opposition to punitive measures by European governments.

The country, however, remains unfazed. In June, Iran launched commercial production of HR coils, steel sheet and ribbed sheet at Mobarakeh Steel Company, with a capacity of 1.6 million tonnes.

The opening of the new mill in central Isfahan offset a cut in sales of hot-rolled (HR) steel coils in the face of unilateral US sanctions.

It came as steel traders said that Russian steelmakers Severstal and MMK as well as ArcelorMittal Temirtau, a Kazakh unit of the world’s largest steelmaker, were cutting back their sales to Iran.

HR coil is used in the pipes and profiles segment, which is a large steel end-use sector in the country.

In January, Iran brought online its third steel plant which uses domestic technology for production of direct reduced iron (DRI) or sponge iron.