Iran reports 14.8% growth in manufacturing despite US pressure

[Resurgence]

Iran’s minister of industries says manufacturing activity has grown by nearly 15 percent despite growing American pressure on the country’s economy.

Reza Rahmani cited data published by the Central Bank of Iran showing that manufacturing growth had reached 2.3% in January this year from minus 12.5% in March 2018.

Rahmani made the comments in a meeting on Sunday with his deputies in the ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade (MIMT), according to a report by the semi-official ILNA agency.

Iran has been under a series of unprecedented economic sanctions by the United States since November 2018, months after Washington withdrew from a major international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.

The bans have seriously affected the government’s spending and investment in various sectors of the economy, including in the manufacturing where Iran relies on many small and large enterprises for much of its daily needs.

Rahmani said, however, that car output in Iran had also grown after a lengthy period of recession to reach 4,000 vehicles a day. That means a double increase to Iran’s average daily output compared to the recent months.

The government has adopted measures to protect industries from the impacts of the American sanctions, including by imposing tariffs on exports of raw material as well as providing credit facilities for small and medium-sized enterprises to help them survive the difficult economic situation.



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Published Saturday, February 22



Iranian companies ink 5,000-ton rail deal in blow to US sanctions



A deal has been signed between the Khatam-al Anbiya Construction Headquarters and the Isfahan Steel Company for the production of 5000 tons of railway lines as Tehran eyes to reduce dependency on foreign companies and cut dollar-related expenditures.

The deal was inked on Saturday during an exhibition of Iranian technological and engineering capabilities hosted by Khatam-al Anbiya in Tehran.

About 500 Iranian companies are taking part in the event. The deal is the first phase of a project seeking to provide railway lines for Iran’s Chabahar-Zahedan railway project.

Iran, situated in a strategic regional trade intersection hub, has sought to work with various countries such as Italy, France, Russia and China to further develop its expansive network of railway lines.

Iran has since further sought to adapt to challenges imposed by the wide-sweeping bans by relying on its own domestic industry sector.

Speaking during the exhibition on Saturday, Iran's minister of industry, mine and trade said the country is set to save up to 10 billion dollars over the course of the next two years by replacing imported products with domestic alternatives.

Pointing to a sharp decline in Iran’s imports, Reza Rahmani added that Iran currently enjoys desirable production capabilities and can produce beyond its needs in certain industrial fields.

Rahmani also said that domestic industries have been successful in alleviating the country’s needs by taking over related production, pointing to recent domestic contracts related to electrode, aluminum and heavyweight vehicle tire production.

Also speaking during the exhibition, Saeed Mohammad, head of the Khatam-al Anbiya Construction Headquarters, said the construction group has been able to save up to 7 billion dollars by developing indigenous industrial equipment.

Mohammad called for further empowerment of the domestic production sector, adding that doing so would boost the country’s economy, reduce inflation and strengthen the Iranian currency.



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Published Tuesday, February 11



India, Iran ditch US dollar and then see rise in trade



Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi show documents to reporters in February 2018.




Iran’s switch to currencies other than the US dollar is showing the first signs of paying off.

Traders say Iran overtook Russia as the top buyer of Indian tea last year, after the two countries agreed on a rupee-rial trade arrangement.

The two traditional trade partners launched the arrangement to bypass restrictions imposed by the US, which has been pursuing a “maximum pressure” policy against the Islamic Republic.

“This boost really has come because of the rupee-rial trade arrangement that we have had with Iran,” Azam Monem, one of India’s largest tea exporters, told Bloomberg on Monday.

Monem, who is the director at McLeod Russel India Ltd., said India’s diplomacy should allow the country “to remain a partner to Iran” which is a key buyer of Indian tea and rice.  

According to Bloomberg, Iran imported 53.5 million kilograms of tea from India last year, a rise of 74% from 2018.

The rise came even as Indian exports overall dropped 3% to 248 million kilograms last year as bad weather hit production in the crucial months of June and July.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif recently hailed longstanding relations between the two countries, emphasizing that relations between Tehran and New Delhi were unbreakable.

The remarks came less than a month after Indian media quoted Zarif as having said that India had actually put itself “on the receiving end” of US “bullying” by caving in to illegal sanctions and ending oil imports from the Islamic Republic.

India was Iran’s second largest oil customer, importing 457,000 barrels of oil a day before the US unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in May 2018.

India stopped importing oil from Iran In May 2019 after the White house terminated sanctions waivers for major buyers of crude from the Islamic Republic in an attempt to bring Iran’s oil exports to “zero”.

In December, Iran and India agreed to speed up the development of Chabahar port which New Delhi views as a gateway to access Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar announced the news after meeting Iranian officials in Tehran where the two sides took a stock of the state of bilateral relations after the US reimposition of sanctions on Tehran.

For Indians, Chabahar is on course to change the whole economic geography of the region because it gives them direct unobstructed access to Central Asia, to Russia and Europe.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said his country would spend $500 million to develop Chabahar and related infrastructure to boost growth and spur the unhindered flow of commerce in the region.



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Published Monday, February 24



Trump pitches for US to become India's premier defense partner, a day before $3 billion helicopter deals



The US has strongly pitched for becoming India’s “premier defense partner” by providing it with the most advanced weapon systems “feared” across the globe, ahead of the inking of two more military helicopter deals worth $3 billion on Tuesday, which will take the total value of lucrative Indian arms deals bagged by Washington just since 2007 over the $20 billion mark.



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