TEHRAN- Iran has targeted manufacturing of 12 million sets of home appliances in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021), an official with the Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry announced.

Keyvan Gardan, the director for the electrical and metals industries and home appliances office of the ministry, put the annual production of home appliances at nine million sets in the past Iranian year, Shata reported on Friday.

The official further stated, “Following the policies of Resistance Economy, the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade has defined a path for the development of domestic industry, and we will pass this way with our all-out efforts.”

He said that 500 production units with an annual turnover of $6 billion are currently active in the field of home appliances throughout the country.

The data released by the Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry show that the manufacturing of three home appliance items has experienced growth during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-August 22), compared to the same period of time in the past year.

The ministry’s data show that 481,600 TV sets have been manufactured during the mentioned five-month period, indicating a growth of 78.7 percent year on year.

Manufacturing of refrigerators and freezers has experienced an 18.8-percent rise to stand at 673,800 units.

Washing machine output stood at 368,400 units, with a 58-percent increase.

In mid-August, the spokesman of Iran’s Home Appliances Manufacturers Union said, “One of the country’s major manufacturers is going to produce 1.5 million of various affordable home appliances and distribute them in the market by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021).”

According to Hamidreza Ghaznavi, the mentioned appliances include refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, 32 and 43-inch TV sets and vacuum cleaners.

These devices are meant to be distributed among the low-income classes and will be sold in two packages, Ghaznavi said, adding that they will be of good quality and the manufacturer is not going to make any profit from selling them.

In early July, Ghaznavi had said that Iran is expected to become an exporter of some home appliance items as of the next Iranian calendar year (starts in March 2021).

“If the currency problems are solved and steel sheets and some petrochemical products are provided for this industry, we will become an exporter of some household appliances by the next year,” he said at the time.

In recent years, the Iranian government has been following a new strategy for supporting domestic production to neutralize the impacts of the U.S. sanctions while reducing the reliance of the economy on oil revenues.

The home appliances sector has not been an exemption and like many other areas, the production of home appliances has witnessed a significant rise in the past two years so that in the previous calendar year 1398 (ended on March 19) this industry’s production capacity increased by 10 percent compared to the preceding year.

MA/MA