Tehran, Iran, May 8
By Mehdi Sepahvand, Temkin Jafarov - Trend:
Cutting Iran-West trade relations, the international sanctions on Iran left the way open for Chinese companies to grab the Iranian market in the past few years.
But Iranian customers have always complained about the low quality of Chinese goods and services.
Not only that, the Iranian government has so far been forced to call off many big projects, especially in oil, after long delays by Chinese contractors.
Now if the sanctions are removed, European countries are hopeful that they will regain their place in Iran through quality goods and services.
Trend held a round table with a number of Iranian and foreign companies in the sidelines of the Tehran Oil Show 2015 to discuss the issue.
Chinese companies cannot compete with European companies once the sanctions are removed because they do not offer high-quality products, Constantino Carabal, Commercial Area Manager of the Spanish shipping company Condeminas S.A. told Trend May 7.
"It's been the same for us in Europe. I mean we got a huge wave of Chinese products, but we are starting to see less Chinese products in the market," he said.
"You see a lot of Chinese-made cars in Iran which would not sell in Europe. Iranians had to buy these cars because they are not many options in the market, noted Kiam Karim," Shipping Line Manager of the Iranian company Loka commented.
"In Europe there is not one single Chinese car, because they can't fulfill their requirements," Carabal put in a comment.
"You see a lot of Chinese companies in this exhibition right now. But I'm pretty sure it wont be so next year or at least two years later," said Juan Lopez Doriga, General Manager of Bergé Shipping company.
Iran anticipates the lifting of the sanctions through a comprehensive nuclear deal with world powers that is to be reached by June 30.
With that in mind, Lotka and Bergé signed a contract this year to improve shipping between Iran and Spain. Lotka has an NDOCC, a carrier that carries containers without a vessel, using other carrier vessels. The amount of cooperation between the two countries is less than one hundred containers per month under the sanctions, according to Karim.
Edited by CN
Mehdi Sepahvand is a Tehran-based Trend Agency reporter. Follow him on Twitter @mehdisepahvand