According to the International Exhibition of Iranian Stone, on Friday evening, May 16th, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called Hossein Modarres Khiabani, who has been the head of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade for several days, and called on the ministry to take immediate action. Things like mine activation, car market regulation and the development of non-oil exports.

A few hours after this telephone conversation, the head of the ministry on Friday evening appointed Amir Sabbagh, economic director and investment development developer of Imidro Holding (affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Mines), with a sentence of 11 articles as responsible for following the president's orders. The Ministry of Industry and Mines appointed.

With the slowness of this sentence, it seems that the haste in issuing this sentence has caused that the second paragraph and not the other, have a strange resemblance to each other and are therefore repetitive.

Gholamhossein Delavari (member of the board of directors of the Iranian Stone Association) has reviewed the content of this 11-point ruling in relation to the decorative stone mines.

In a telephone call with Mr. Modarres Khiabani, head of the Ministry of Industry and Mines, the President stressed the need to achieve things such as jumping production and making better use of the mines. Following this, the head of the ministry appointed Mr. Amir Sabbagh as the person in charge of the Presidential Operations Project. In this sentence, eleven articles, various and various issues, from increasing the export of minerals and using small and medium mines to organizing the situation of the car market, have been raised. In your opinion, is this type of appointment that a specific official is responsible for pursuing? Can the president's demands in the field of industry and mining be a pleasant phenomenon?

Of course, this is the case, and this year, which has been named the year of the production leap, it is necessary to provide conditions for production to start and there is no obstacle in the way of production. Unfortunately, this has not been the case so far, and the situation has been such that we have reduced production. I think if these goals are achieved, it will be a very positive thing. Everywhere in the world, exporters are encouraged to pay and export figures, but in Iran, we actually impose fines. Last year, 20 percent of heavy duties were imposed on exports, and exports were halted. The same tolls reduced our exports by about 40 to 50 percent, and this decline in exports was due to the export of building stones. Basically, export is a difficult job and it takes years to find a market. Once the market is found, they once set such tolls and block exports.

Regarding the fact that a specific official has been appointed to follow the President's orders in the field of industry and mining, have you negotiated and interacted with you and other members of the board of directors of the Iranian Stone Association to accompany the President's demands?

Wherever they ask our association for an opinion or invite us to attend meetings, we take the lead. If necessary, we plan and provide good and accurate information to any institution that wants to do something, but so far no official in this field has requested from the Iranian Stone Association.

In January of last year, Mr. Gharibpour, head of Imidro (Organization for the Development and Renovation of Mines under the Ministry of Industry and Mines), met with mining activists and announced that a comprehensive plan of decorative stones would be developed to expand exports. This year, the head of the Ministry of Industry, in a statement, emphasized the development of non-oil and mineral exports. Where did the fate of that comprehensive plan that came up last year go?

The compilation of the master plan has not reached anywhere, but many promises have been made that will remove the 20% tolls on the export of decorative stones. This toll, which was imposed during the time of Dr. Sarghini, Deputy Minister of Mines, is one of the major problems in the export of decorative stones. Of course, these side effects were due to delusional reasons. While seven percent of our country's total mineral production was exported, the domestic market has always been saturated with purchases. The same 7% of exports were not done and we had a continuous decrease in production. As a result, some miners went bankrupt or were unable to continue their work. When that happens, employment in the mining sector will be lost.

You believe that there were false reasons for the 20% tariff on decorative stone exports, but officials at the Ministry of Industry and Mines said that because the sale of raw materials did not take place, these tariffs were imposed to move the industry towards stone processing and not this. To export cobblestones and raw?

This is an issue that needs to be addressed by experts, but the Ministry of Industry and Mines has done a lot of expertise in this area, which has been shown to hurt this type of export. In Iran, there may be a total of 300 factories that have stone cutting equipment with export standards. Of these 300 factories, only 50 are now operational and working well.

Do all stone processing factories have easy access to mined stones?

None of those 50 units had a problem with the lack of raw stone. We have so many raw stones in Iran that any stone-cutting factory can supply as much as it wants. We say that only the excess of domestic demand should be exported, but now they have cut off the roots and practically stopped exporting. The problem was the fifty stone mills with two or three mines, but why did they not allow all the mines to be exported? On the other hand, the export of those two or three special mines had to be limited and they had to hand over fifty stone factories. While there are mines that will be closed if the extracted stone is not exported. Because we do not have their special cutting machine inside our country and it was only exported to other countries. With twenty percent public tolls, some mines that could be exported and could provide their own liquidity from exports were in trouble.

Mines that you believe should only be mined, what kind of rocks do they extract?

Traonix is ​​a stone that I have not seen in Iran, at least cut it somewhere and use it inside our country. Traonyx is a mixture of travertine and marble. In the past, this type of stone was considered as a by-product, but slowly, it gained a small market in China, and based on this, these mines grew a bit. On the same type of stone, export duties were closed and no longer sold.

Was this type of stone exported only in the form of coupe and block stones?

Yes; It was issued in blocks and was not cut. No factory has the equipment to cut it, and these stones have no market in our country. The same stone-throwing factories that have an export market only cut a few tons of stone. We have fifty factories, and if we assume that five hundred tons of stone will be cut, it will be about twenty-five thousand tons. This twenty-five thousand tons is nothing compared to the annual extraction of at least ten million tons. It's not that if we export a certain amount of stone, the domestic stone-cutting factories will be closed and it will be said that it has been sold raw. First of all, the quarry is not raw. The quarry is mined and its six sides are cut. Raw stone is what comes from the heart of the mountain and we carry it. When the six facets of the stone are cut and added value, the name is no longer raw, but in the name of being raw, the government has stopped exporting it with 20 percent tolls. Currently, Turkey and Italy have the largest exports of processed stone. If we call the quarry raw, these two countries also sell raw materials and sell the stones in blocks.

Are there any statistics on the export of raw stones from Italy and Turkey, which show that half of the extracted stones are exported?

Italy is far ahead of Iran in terms of decorative stones and has been more active now. Our question is, if the sale of raw materials hits the building stone, why do the Italians sell this type of stone? Turkey also sells a high percentage of raw stone. Of course, the cut stone also sells as much as it wants. Due to sanctions, it is very difficult to export Iranian cut stone, but block stone can be exported anyway.

What is the difference in the export of these two types of stones that you find it difficult to export the cut stone?

We are on the side of the factory owner in the export of block stones, but in order to export the cut stone, we have to enter the consumer market. In the stone-cutting market, we don't have a steady customer, and that's why there's no trust, and it's a little harder to sell. On the other hand, money transfers are not possible for us due to sanctions. Chinese factories have been working with us for years, and the two sides have gained each other's trust. Based on this, he has trusted and now, based on trust, our stone is being sold.

The first paragraph of the decree of the head of the Ministry of Industry and Mines emphasizes "the development of executive programs for the development of export of processed materials and minerals with more added value." Do you think that in the same year that it has been named the year of production leaps and bounds in the coming years, more added value can be created and the development of mining exports can be achieved?

Yes; This is definitely possible. We now have 300 stone-cutting factories that have stone cutting facilities for export, but perhaps 50 of them are active. The main problem of these units is the management problem. Of course, some of them have liquidity problems. The situation of these units should be examined to see how their problems can be solved. For example, they can be given training classes, and if they have difficulty with liquidity, they can be given low-interest loans so that they can recover and start working.

Paragraph 2 of this decree addresses the issue of "using small and medium-sized mines with the aim of developing exports and creating sustainable employment in this sector." What do you think is the situation of the mines that are active in the field of decorative stones, and is it possible to activate the closed units in the coming months?

Some units can be activated, but some cannot be activated. I believe that these units have management problems at first. Then they have a liquidity problem and then a marketing problem for that rock. One person has registered a range for mining, but this person is not familiar with this business and its market, and this person does not have the liquidity and management of this work. This mine is locked by this person. Because such a person does not have the information to do so. It's really hard to start this kind of mine, but on the other hand, some small mines don't work at all. We have a lot of mines that are locked, but other people can invest there. Unfortunately, many people enter the mining business but do not specialize in this field. These people think that because they enter the mining business, they will definitely make a very good profit, but due to ignorance, they have suffered heavy losses.

Paragraph two of the provisions in question refers to "the use of small and medium-sized mines with the aim of developing exports and creating sustainable employment in this sector." "Small and medium-sized, with the aim of developing exports and creating sustainable employment in this sector." Do you see a big difference between these two clauses "two" and "no" in the decree of the head of the Ministry of Industry and Mines?

In my opinion, they are not different, that is, the two clauses are the same. In my opinion, at least these two clauses are no different. However, I believe that if exports are not helped, many of our mines will be closed. The government, on the one hand, is trying to activate stagnant mines, but with exactly 20 percent of its levies, some mines are closing.

In 1397, five hundred and eighty-one thousand tons of processed stone worth one hundred and forty-four million dollars were exported, and one million tons of quarry stones were exported, which had one hundred and sixty-one million dollars. There are no specific statistics on last year's exports. In the last year, when 20% of the duties have been imposed on stone exports since the beginning of October, has the export of decorative stones decreased significantly?

I don't have exact numbers, but some of the minerals I know, and some of their rocks were exported, have been very severely exported. Their exports may have dropped by up to one-fifth. For example, a type of stone worth $ 70 per ton was exported, but the export of this stone also costs money. On the other hand, our customs has set the base price of a ton of stone at one hundred and twenty dollars. Accordingly, they receive twenty percent of the one hundred and twenty dollars as tolls.
Exporting such a stone is no longer economical at all. Of that $ 70, about $ 30 is the cost, and $ 40 remains for the exporter. Shipping costs have now risen due to sanctions, but when they take $ 25 for the $ 70 tolls, it's no longer worth exporting.

* Iranian Stone Association