Export of first class stones to European market
Secretary of Iranian Stone Association: Despite all the problems and mechanisms caused by the boycott, activists in this area have been able to return the money from their exports to the country.
According to Iran's International Stone Exhibition, Ahmad Sharifi, Secretary General of the Iranian Association of Stone Exports in the first nine months of this year, said: "The export of the stone industry is different from other areas due to its specific conditions and if we want to look at this year's situation, Export volumes were acceptable, and in the processed stone section we were able to export more than simple stones.
But the export is very low compared to the country's production capacity, while our production capacity is one hundred and eighty million meters per year, he continued. This year we had fifty million square meters of production, ten million of which have been exported, meaning that the units operating in the area worked at one-third of their capacity, and many units were shut down due to the inability to sell our products if we wanted to keep the industry up and running. To continue to operate, we need to expand our export markets.
Sharifi continued: Our processing units are mostly traditional. Of the 6,000 units, only three hundred units are capable of producing export-grade stones, of which only 150 are currently operating. We need to help units that are still working on the old technology to update themselves and find export markets for them.
About the consumption situation in the country, he said: in the year 3 and 5, the peak of construction boom in the country was under construction and hundred and forty million square meters, but now the number has reached less than half, ie fifty to sixty million square meters. And we have no hope that the situation will improve in the future. We must admit that we will not have a boom in construction next year.
Sharifi reiterated: Despite all the problems and mechanisms created by the boycott, activists in this area have been able to return the money from their exports to the country. In recent months, people have come to the community asking for money back, and we've helped them get as much as we can out of the dollar and give them rials here.
"The main market for our processed stones is Iraq, where medium-sized stones are exported, and good and first-class stones go to the European market and advanced countries, while 90 percent of the block stones, which are part of the raw material of the China exports.
Sharifi said: Out of 10 million meters of exported stone, about seven million meters goes to the Iraqi market, but the problem we have right now is that the stone going to this country is not good in quality and this is our stone industry and our credibility. It hits. The community and the government must come to terms with this situation. Now the stone exported to this country is less than ten dollars, which means something like export cement to Iraq is happening and we are destroying the market ourselves. It is happening now and we need to think about it sooner.
The general secretary of the Stone Producers Association stated: "Our units sell their stones to Iraqi brokers at the lowest price because of the problem of liquidity and working capital and they also bring them into Iraq. The sanctions have forced us to pay more for transportation and transportation, and the cost of returning money has reduced a few percent of our profits.
* Ilna
