"Some 200,000 tons of cement and clinker worth $3.284mln were exported in the first two months of the current Iranian year," Secretary General of Iran's Guild Association of Cement Industries Employers Abdolreza Sheikhan said.
He noted that Iran's cement and clinker exports showed a 47 percent growth as compared with last year's corresponding period.
Last week, a senior Iranian official said Iran will become the world's third largest cement producer by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2013).
"Iran is projected to export 18-20 million tons of cement in 2013 in a bid to rank third in the world after China and India by leaving behind the US," Deputy Industry, Mine and Commerce Minister for mining and mineral industries Vajihollah Jafari said.
He noted that the country has boosted its production capacity by inaugurating several cement production plants in recent years, and said Iran plans to further increase its output to 83mln tons by opening more plants in the near future.
Iran will leave the US behind by the end of the current year to become the world's third largest cement exporter, the Global Cement magazine wrote in its May edition.
In August 2011, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran has joined the world cement exporters club after building numerous cement factories across the country.
"Today our country has become a main exporter of cement," Ahmadinejad said at a ceremony held to inaugurate the second phase of a cement factory in Orumiyeh, Northwestern Iran, in mid August.
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