Export of $ 350 million ornamental stones
Vice President of Iranian Stone Association: Export value of decorative stone and facade last year amounted to about $ 350 million, transferred to the target markets in raw and processed form.
According to Iran's International Stone Exhibition, "Malik Rahmati" explained: Today the annual production of ornamental stone and facade has reached 13 million tons and in this regard Iran is among the five leading countries of the world. Previous statistics indicate that the country's ornamental and facade mines account for more than 2,000 mines, of which about 1,200 are active.
Thirty million tons of stone industry capacity
He said production capacity of active mines in the country is estimated at 30 million tons annually and has the capacity to employ 300,000 people directly and indirectly.
Rahmati recalled: Last year, the rise of the dollar in the domestic market offered exporters an opportunity to boost the country's non-oil exports. In fact, mining and mining are one of the special advantages in this regard.
He added: Iran is among the top ten countries of the world mineral index and those involved in the production and export of low-capacity building stones can take this opportunity.
Vice President of the Iranian Stone Association stated: outrageous enemy sanctions, problems with money transfers, sea shipping, investments and major buyers of this mineral have created, but what is damaging to the country's stone industry is the sanctions. It is not foreign, it is the sanctions, the instructions themselves, and the commands of creationist and non-expert.
Surrender to the rival rock market
A review of the stone industry's history shows that in 2010, the allocation of seventy percent to the export of stone ore resulted in a reduction of its share of 800,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes or less. Turkey was immediately replaced as a competitor and gained market share.
According to Rahmati, one of the most urgent strategies that the Ministry of Industry must always follow is its model of work and all its material and spiritual support, including maintaining and strengthening the value chain of the stone industry from technical exploration to conceptual extraction and processing. Quality and export are targeted, which neglects each of the pillars of the chain, causing irreparable damage to the industry.
He pointed out that the Mining Industry Management Team of the Ministry of Industry should provide the necessary quantitative and qualitative indicators for the realization of this chain in consultation with the industry's elite within a specific time frame in order to witness a real production boom. Unofficial statistics indicate that 11 million square meters of ornamental stone and facade are exported annually in the country, eleven million square meters are exported and forty to fifty million square meters of export capacity is available in the processing sector. This requires a serious presence in export markets.
Rahmati noted: No restrictions can prevent businessmen and producers from reaching the target markets, but this requires unity and empathy and careful expert work on world rock markets that cannot be sanctioned.
Focus on target markets
He expressed hope that exporters of the country, focusing on the target markets, will transcend any obstacle and provide a boom in production while concentrating and overlapping.
"The judiciary is expected to support the manufacturing sector more than ever in the face of sanctions, and those who today are at the forefront of the fight against enemy economic warfare and are in fact fighters and economic witnesses," said Vice President of the Iranian Stone Association. Be supported.
He emphasized: "Professionals have a request from the judiciary to ensure the security of their activities and in fact provide meaningful support to them, as the enemy forces in various ways expose their country's economy."
Stone's five-year plan
According to Rahmati, the five-year plan set for the stone industry was expected to reach $ 2 billion, but no practical steps were taken by the ministry to support it.
He pointed out that the Iranian stone industry has high capability, good storage, color diversity and superior quality to some of its competitors, but the support and incentives can show its effective role that this has not been operational so far. Sanctions cannot be an obstacle to the wheel of production.
The Vice President of the Iranian Stone Association stated that the transition from the current interim period is definitely possible and we should not stop and stop the production wheel from moving, but should continue to work.
He said that the stone-producing units are facing difficulties in the current situation, but this can be eliminated by having a serious presence in various global markets, especially overseas exhibitions to showcase domestic products.
* IRNA
