Iran nearly self

TEHRAN – Iranian manufacturers are currently producing 95 percent of the components and parts used in the home appliance industry, according to the head of the Association of Home Appliance Parts Manufacturers.

"We are 95 percent self-sufficient in the production of home appliance parts, and only in some electronic parts and refrigerator compressors we are still dependence on foreign suppliers," Morsal Sediq told IRIB.

According to Sediq, there are currently more than 2,000 home appliance component manufacturing units active in the country, which, in addition to meeting the needs of domestic manufacturers, export to other countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Egypt, Tunisia, and Syria.

Mentioning some of the problems that the industry is facing, the official said: "Despite the high quality of the products made by domestic manufacturers and despite the investments made in this industry over the last few years, the illegal import and smuggling of household appliance parts into the country continues to hurt this sector."

The head of the Home Appliance Parts Manufacturers Association criticized the lack of attention to the home appliance parts industry and noted that one of the reasons why the import of home appliance parts still continues is that the government is not applying the law banning the import of domestically manufactured products into the country, on the home appliance parts and components.

"As long as the import of home appliance parts to the country is not banned domestic manufacturers will not be able to compete with imported products," he stressed.

Referring to the high costs of production for the parts makers, Sediq noted that the raw materials needed by the home appliance parts industry are abundant in the country and there is no problem in this regard, but since the government provides the raw materials to the manufacturer at a high price, the production cost for the parts makers has increased compared to the foreign counterparts.

EF/MA