Corporate News & Business

Hungary allocates €85mn to finance joint projects with Iran (Mehr News Agency, 09 April 2017)

While pointing to Tehran-Budapest cooperation over designing small power plants, Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mr. Ali Akbar Salehi said that Hungarian banks were ready to fund joint projects worth up to 85 million euros. He expressed satisfaction towards Hungary’s measures in cooperation with Iran adding that one sign of good relations between the two sides is awarding 100 scholarships to the Iranian students interested in studying in the European country. The Iranian official expressed hope that exiting ties will be boosted in the future. Mr. Salehi went on to refer to joint experiences of both countries in construction of nuclear power plants recalling that proper venues existed for mutual cooperation between the two sides. Speaking to reporters about sales of heavy water, he said that a number of negotiations had been held with European companies and they had called for a remarkable volume of Iran’s heavy water though the European Union first needs to provide the members with the license to purchase the product.

Mining projects worth over $1b to come on stream by September 2017 (Tehran Times, 09 April 2017)

Head of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organisation Mr. Mehdi Karbasian announced that 24 mining projects worth over US$ 1 billion will be put into operation during the first half of the current Iranian year (21 March 2017-22 September 2017). Iran’s worth of minerals and mining exports stood at US$ 6 billion in the past Iranian year (21 March 2016-20 March 2017). Underlining the role of mines in the prosperity of national economy, Deputy Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Mr. Jafar Sarqini announced that mines have created 12,500 job opportunities and mining industries account for creation of 6,500 jobs in the country during the past year.

Exports via Shahid Rajaie port grew 44% on year (Tehran Times, 09 April 2017)

Mr. Alireza Dashtani, an official in Hormozgan Province Customs Administration said on 8 April 2017 that the value of exported goods from Iran’s southern port of Shahid Rajaie increased by 44%t in the past Iranian year 1395 (21 March 2016-20 March 2017), compared to the preceding year.

KSC is Iran’s biggest steel exporter (Financial Tribune, 09 April 2017)

Khouzestan Steel Company became Iran’s largest exporter of steel by exporting 1.9 million tons of billet and slab in the past Iranian year (21 March 2016-20 March 2017), according to KSC Sales Deputy Mr. Bahman Tajallizadeh. Some 52% of the company’s output was exported, a historical record for Iran’s steel industry. Mobarakeh Steel Company, Iran’s largest producer, was previously the country’s largest exporter of steel. Khouzestan Steel Company has regular exports to 13 countries, some 50% of which are shipped to the Middle East and North Africa region, 40% to Asia and about 10% to American countries (Brazil and Canada). According to an Iranian steel specialist, the metal was Iran’s largest export commodity after oil, gas and petrochemicals, partly because of the slump in domestic construction.

Saba steel complex doubles capacity (Financial Tribune, 09 April 2017)

Saba Steel Complex, a subsidiary of Iran’s largest flat steel producer Mobarakeh Steel Company, has managed to finish the second phase of its expansion project, allowing it to double steelmaking and rolling capacities of the mill. The development will help cover the needs of the local market taking into account the lack of hot rolled coil in Iran. Saba Steel Complex recently completed a 850,000-ton electric arc furnace and compact strip production plant that allowed the company to reach a total of 1.6 million tons of slabs and HRC capacity per year. the new equipment is expected to reach full utilisation within a year.

Finance

Tehran, Kuala Lumpur draft banking cooperation agreement (Mehr News Agency, 09 April 2017)

On the sidelines of the Islamic Financial Services Board (ISBF) annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur, central banks of Iran and Malaysia agreed to bolster bilateral banking relations. The ISBF meeting brought together the key stakeholders of the Islamic financial services industry which include regulatory and supervisory authorities, industry and market players, multilateral organizations, academics, Islamic finance practitioners and members of the public. Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Mr. Akbar Komeijani met and talked with his Malaysian counterpart Mr. Encik Shaik Abdul Rasheed. Draft of an MoU for banking cooperation between the two sides was finalised and will be inked by governors of Iranian and Malaysian central banks.

Iranian banks’ L/C boom in post-sanctions era (Financial Tribune, 09 April 2017)
Iran’s Ministry of Economy has published the details of letters of credit and banking guarantees that Iranian banks allocated over the past few years, showing progress made since economic sanctions against Iran were lifted in January 2016. According to the ministry’s report, Bank Melli Iran (BMI) allocated 154 letters of credit worth US$ 42.71 million over a four-year period (2013-16). A total of 18 L/Cs worth more than US$ 7.8 million were opened in 2013 but the figure for next year dropped to around $2 million. In 2015, L/Cs bounced back to US$ 12.7 million and in 2016, with JCPOA in action, BMI opened 30 L/Cs valued at $6.8 million during the first six months of the Iranian fiscal year (21 March 2016-21 September 2016) and estimates the figure to have reached 100 L/Cs worth US$ 20 million by 20 March 2017. During 2013-16, Bank Keshavarzi opened 19,253 L/Cs worth over US$ 10.5 billion. It also played an important role in issuing 21 bank guarantees valued at US$ 15 million. From March 2016 to September 2016, the bank opened 5,840 letters of credit worth over US$ 2.8 billion. Bank Mellat also issued 32 export guarantees worth US$ 15.4 million and four import guarantees worth US$ 13.5 million during the six-month period, while they planned to increase the number of export guarantees to 63 worth US$ 87.5 million and import guarantees to 16 worth US$ 35 million. Tejarat Bank issued over 4,500 L/Cs worth US 1.8 billion during 2013-15 but they increased in the first six months of the Iranian year (20 March 2016-20 September 2016)) to 1,103 L/Cs. Export Development Bank of Iran–the country’s Exim bank–also did pretty well by opening 550 L/Cs and issuing more than 1,750 bank guarantees during 2013-15 to emerge as one of the main forces in the Iranian economy.

Iran closing the gap on banking innovation (Financial Tribune, 09 April 2017)

Despite restrictions imposed by sanctions, some of which having outlived the 2015 nuclear accord, the administration of President Hassan Rouhani managed to significantly close the technological gap between the Iranian and global banking systems by focusing on innovative products in the field, said Deputy Economy Minister Mr. Hossein Qazavi. Stressing the importance of easing transactions for the Iranian public, Qazavi said the country’s GDP is about US$ 346.6 billion and annually banking transactions throughout the country are about six times this amount. About 90% of the transactions (equivalent to US$ 1.86 trillion are in the form of e-payments. As another example of advances in the banking sector, Qazavi referred to ATM machines. With an increase of 15,000 machines, there are now 42,000 ATMs in Iran, according to the latest statistics.

Oil & Gas

West Karoun oilfields to yield 500k bpd (Mehr News Agency, 09 April 2017)

Managing Director of Iran’s Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC) Mr. Nureddin Shahnazizadeh said oil recovery from South Azadegan will rise from the current 45 000 barrels per day to 85 000 by late April 2017 and later to 110 000 by late June 2017. The official further touched upon the measures taken to restore Hurolazim Pond saying that early production had begun from Azadegan and Yaran fields the output level of which will hopefully exceed 500 thousand barrels of crude oil per day by late June 2017. Mr. Shahnazizadeh said that the oil fields west of Karoun were aimed to produce 1.2 million barrels per day

Iran to certify more companies for IPC soon (Tehran Times, 08 April 2017)

The National Iranian Oil Company is preparing a new list of companies eligible for participating in the oil tenders and the approved candidates will be notified after finalising the list, Deputy Oil Minister Mr. Karim Zobeidi said on 7 April 2017, adding that most of the candidates are Russian companies and their names will be announced next week. The official said although NIOC has not yet received any document from BP but the British company has not been eliminated from the potential bidders’ list.

Iranian light crude’s weekly price up $1.21 (Tehran Times, 08 April 2017)

The price of Iran’s light crude oil in the week that ended on 31 March 2017 rose by US$ 1.21 to stand at US$ 48.78 per barrel. Last week Shana reported that the price for Iranian oil witnessed an almost $12 rise in the first half of the first month of Iran’s new year (21 March 2017-4 April 2017) compared to the same period last year.

Economy & Society
Track-laying for Mianeh-Tabriz railroad begins (Financial Tribune, 09 April 2017)
rack-laying for a railroad linking the city of Mianeh in the northwestern East Azarbaijan Province to its capital city Tabriz started on 7 April 2017. In the first phase, rail tracks for 158 kilometers of the route, from Mianeh to Bostanabad will be laid. According to the Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mr. Abbas Akhoundi, he Mianeh-Tabriz route will reduce the current 714 km Tehran-Tabriz journey to 600 kilometers. The first section is to become operational in late August 2017.

By Natela Outtier

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