Page 54 - IRANRptFeb22

Weak rial pushes growth of Iranian home appliance exports driven by regional markets
Iran’s home appliance exports reached a value of $212mn in the first nine months of the current Persian calendar year (March 21-December 21), up 4% y/y, according to the Trade Promotion Organization (TPO).
The country’s exports of white goods and other home appliances such as stoves and heaters have grown in recent years with consumers in neighbouring countries including Turkey and Azerbaijan taking advantage of the weak Iranian rial, severely depreciated since the US reimposed heavy sanctions on Tehran in 2018. In many border towns, including Baneh on the border with Iraq, a huge industry focused on fridge exports has developed. Speaking at a specialised roundtable entitled "Business Models in the Home Appliance Industry: Opportunities and Challenges," Abutaleb Badri, TPO’s deputy head of marketing and trade relations, estimated that Iran’s home appliance exports in the previous Persian calendar year amounted to $308mn in value, translating to another 4% gain year on year.
Speaking about trade potential with Eurasian countries, Badri said: "Exporters and producers should use the opportunities offered by trade agreements with these countries."
Last October, Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade Reza Fatemi Amin said Iranian home appliance exports could double in the Persian year starting in March 2025.
In recent years, Iran has worked to stamp out competition posed by global appliances players such as LG and Samsung. Analysts say political reasons—such as Iran’s protests that Seoul has refused to unlock billions of dollars of Iranian capital in Korean bank accounts frozen by US sanctions—have provided useful cover in creating a monopoly of domestic players. On April 15 last year, a spokesman for the Home Appliance Association of Iran said that there was no need for foreign companies to enter the Iranian home appliances market and that barriers to non-Iranian producers must be established.
Prior to the reintroduction of US sanctions nearly four years ago, LG and Samsung were among Korean companies that had sweetheart deals with Iran, including for the assembly of products in Iranian special economic zones (SEZs).
Some 3,000 companies in Iran produce parts for the home appliance industry, according to the country’s Home Appliance Association.
9.1.10 Property & construction sector news
Iran’s economy ministry looks to raise $600mn from property auctions
Around 2,500 residential and commercial properties with an officially estimated value of approximately $600mn are to be auctioned by Iran’s economy ministry in a bid to raise funds for the government, Tehran’s Financial Tribune has reported.
Some of the property assets, dating from before Iran’s 1979 revolution, are available because of mergers between ministries over the years that left office space free. In central Tehran there are such buildings that have been left empty for decades. Only in the past decade have there been significant sales of abandoned buildings of this type to private developers. The developers mostly look to turn them into luxury flats or business centres.
“These properties have been recognised as excess and are ready for sale, and have all the legal ownership documents,” Fateme Dadgar, a spokeswoman for the economy ministry was quoted as saying by news portal shada.ir, in reference to all the assets to be auctioned.
The economy ministry has plans to raise close to Iranian rial (IRR) 1,000tn ($3.5bn at the free market exchange rate) in all from property sales nationwide
54 IRAN Country Report February 2022 www.intellinews.com