The Iranian steel industry is ranked ninth or 10th in the world and accounts for some 14% of Iran’s non-oil and natural gas exports.

By JNS

The Israeli Air Force on Friday struck major steel complexes in the cities of Isfahan and Ahvaz, as part of an intensified campaign to pummel the Islamic Republic’s industrial infrastructure, The New York Times reported, citing Iranian officials.

The attack on the Mobarakeh Steel Complex in Isfahan killed one person and injured 15, according to the Times.

Two large electric power plants that supply the steel complex were also damaged, the report added, citing the governor of Isfahan Province as saying.

The strike on the Khuzestan Steel Industries facility in Ahvaz injured 16 workers, the Times cited the deputy governor of Khuzestan Province as saying.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Israel on X of hitting two of Iran’s largest steel factories, a power plant and civilian nuclear sites, among other infrastructure facilities.

He said the attacks contradicted U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to give diplomatic talks a chance to end the conflict, and threatened that Tehran will exact a “heavy” price in response.

Israel’s broadcaster Channel 14 reported that the strikes were conducted at the instruction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, coordinated in advance with U.S. Central Command.

The complexes are partially owned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and hitting them is expected to significantly impair the Iranian economy, the report noted.

The Iranian steel industry is ranked ninth or 10th in the world and accounts for some 14% of Iran’s non-oil and natural gas exports, according to Channel 14.

Earlier in the day, Katz warned in a statement that “IDF strikes in Iran will escalate and expand to additional targets and domains that assist the regime in developing and operating weapons against Israeli civilians,” per Ynet.

“We warned the Iranian terrorist regime to stop firing missiles at the civilian population in Israel. Despite the warnings, the fire has continued. They will pay a heavy and increasing price for this war crime,” Katz said.

In the wake of the damage to its steel industry, Iran issued a threat against six steel plants across the Middle East, facilities in Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, Ynet added.

IDF hits key nuclear, munition production sites

The IAF overnight Friday conducted three waves of attacks on Iran that targeted central factories of its nuclear weapons program and munitions production industry, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

These included the heavy water plant in Arak, whose product is used to operate nuclear reactors, and a factory that extracts uranium from ore in Yazd, both in central Iran.

The heavy water plant was struck after efforts to fix previous damage were detected by the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate.

Originally, it was “designed to have the capability to produce weapons-grade plutonium. These materials are also used as a source for extracting neutrons for nuclear weapons. In addition, the plant served as a significant economic asset for the terrorist regime and was a source of income for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization. Its operations generated tens of millions of dollars annually for the regime,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.

The plant was struck during “Operation Rising Lion” in June.

The factory in Yazd is a one-of-a-kind Iranian facility that uses precursor materials required for the uranium enrichment process, the military said.

“This is a critically important process for the nuclear weapons program advanced by the regime, and it constitutes the beginning of the value chain required for producing nuclear weapons,” the army added.

“The IDF will not allow the Iranian terror regime to continue its attempts to advance the nuclear weapons program, which poses an existential threat to the State of Israel and the entire world,” the statement read.

More than 50 aircraft took part in the sorties, which lasted hours, according to the IDF.

Moreover, the IAF struck the headquarters of Iran’s Maritime Industries Organization, guided by the Israeli Naval Intelligence Division, the military said in a separate statement.

The headquarters is responsible for research, development and production of a wide variety of naval weapons systems, including surface and subsurface vessels, manned and unmanned vehicles, as well as engines and weapons, according to the IDF.

Simultaneously, Israeli aircraft struck numerous sites used for producing and developing a variety of weapons systems and air defense systems so as to preserve the IAF’s aerial superiority in Iranian airspace, the IDF said.

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The steel industry is preparing to bring back as many as 10,000 American jobs if Trump reduces taxes and regulations.

US Steel CEO Mario Longhi shared astonishing news in an interview with CNBC Wednesday.

According to the CEO, government regulations forced his company, United States Steel, to hire more lawyers than engineers. Under those conditions, many production jobs were lost, and the result is that China alone now produces more than 10 times the amount of steel produced in America.

At one time, US Steel was the largest steel producer and the largest corporation in the world, growing into the world’s first billion-dollar company. By 1943, the business had more than 340,000 employees. Well paid, US Steel workers in Alabama average $101,000 per year.

Under heavy taxation, regulation and unionization, the company was forced to downsize. By 2001, its total steel production dropped to its 1902 level. Today, the company employs just 37,000 workers.

Longhi  described how difficult it became to manage the government’s regulation scheme. “There was a point in time in the past couple years that I was having to hire more lawyers to try to interpret these new regulations than I was hiring … engineers,”  he explained. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“When you get into some situations where we’re being asked to control some substances in water that are far lower than what nature naturally offers, that’s irrational,” he added.

Looking to the future, Longhi is expecting changes from President-elect Donald Trump that would allow US Steel to hire back laid-off employees.

“We already structured to do some things, but when you see in the near future improvement to the tax laws, improvements to regulation, those two things by themselves may be a significant driver to what we’re going to do,” he said.

“I’d be more than happy to bring back the [reportedly close to 10,000] employees we’ve been forced to lay off during that depressive period,” he stated, referring to the entire American steel industry.

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