Tehran, Iran, January 3
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
Iran is pushing for one internationally viable home appliance brand as well as two or three nationally competitive ones by the year 2025 according to a national policy overview set up by the Ministry of Mine, Industry, and Trade.
The international brand will have the ability to hold a good market in the countries that are neighbors with Iran, said Abbas Hashemi, director general of home appliances and metal industries department of the ministry, Trend correspondent reported from a press conference January 3.
According to Hashemi, Iran’s annual import of home appliances is close to $500 million a year at the present.
Home appliance completely built units (CBU) export is $170 million, while the import of such products is $485 million a year, he said.
Hashemi said during the first eight months of the current Iranian fiscal year (since March 20, 2016), Iranian manufacturers produced 1.8 million small home appliance units, 650 thousand swamp coolers, 850 thousand gas heaters, 900 thousand ovens, 650 thousand refrigerators, 400 thousand washing machines, and 110 thousand sewing machines.
However, he said several obstacles need to be removed before Iranian manufacturers can produce competitive products.
One of the obstacles is the high banking facility interest rate which hovers somewhere between 22 and 30 percent, he said.
The other problem, he said, is that although Iran is rich in resources, such as metal mines and petrochemical production, the prices of these material are influenced very much by the international market, making it risky for Iranian manufacturers of home appliances to make long-term plans.