Europe’s steel imports from Iran has increased by nearly eight times between 2013 and 2016, placing the country at the third spot next to China and India .

It has made Iranian steel imports the latest threat to European steelmakers, Steel lobby group Eurofer said on Thursday, , Reuters reported. 

“The threat from Iran is new and it’s going to be one of the top three issues: China, India, Iran,” Karl Tachelet, external relations and trade director at Eurofer, told Reuters.

Iran aims to export between 20 and 25 million tons of steel annually by 2025 and to increase total output to 55 million tons from an estimated 16 million tons now. 

According to the Head of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) Mehdi Karbasian, domestic steel industry has reached 50 percent of the planned goals that it has been expected to reach based on Iran’s 1404 (March 2025-March 2026) Outlook Plan, IRNA reported.

The country’s major steel producers exported 4.4 million tons of crude steel during the first ten months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2016-January 19, 2017), registering a 45 percent rise compared to the same period in the previous year.

The main producers’ output also witnessed a 2.42 percent rise year on year.

Iran’s annual crude steel production and exports are planned to hit 15 million tons and 6 million tons, respectively, by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2017).

As a major steel producer in the region, Iran boosted its steel mills across the country in recent years, as central Isfahan and southwestern Khuzestan provinces remain the major steel producers.

According to the latest report published by the World Steel Association, Iran produced 17.89 million tons of crude steel in 2016, registering an 11-percent growth compared to the figure in 2015.