TEHRAN- Production of heavy vehicles tire in Iran has increased 20 percent during the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-June 21), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, an official with the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade announced.

Mohammad-Ali Emami, the head of the ministry’s commercial services group, said, “Since the past year, although we have been facing difficulties, we have directed our capacities towards domestic production and tried to meet the need for car tires through domestic production.”

Tire is a strategic commodity for the country, and in the first quarter of this year, 15 million euros was provided for the import of heavy tires, he further stated.

Currently, the market is such that the thirst for imports has decreased due to a 20-percent increase in production and increased market surveillance, the official underlined, and announced that according to statistics, seven manufacturers of heavy tires have produced about 532,000 tires, of which 467,000 have been sold.

Emami went on to say that according to the decision of the cabinet and Note 4 of Article 18 of the Law on Combating Smuggling of Goods and Foreign Currency, monitoring of sensitive and essential goods is mandatory and the distribution of these goods must be done according to the rules.

Most sellers insist that all goods be sold systematically and transparently, and this shows the success of this plan, he highlighted.

As previously reported, the number of tires produced in Iran has risen 10 percent during the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year, compared to the same period of time in the past year.

Over 11.137 million tires weighting 70,447 tons have been produced during the three-month period of this year, indicating also six percent growth in terms of weight.

According to the statistics, in the first three months of this year, the highest growth was due to the production of bicycle tires, which increased by 58 percent in number and 41 percent in weight compared to the same period last year.

In a bid to nullify the U.S. sanctions, Iran is determined to strengthen its domestic production to achieve self-reliance.

Selecting the motto of “Pickup in Production” for the Iranian calendar year 1398 (March 2019-March 2020), and the slogan of “Surge in Production” for the year 1399 (March 2020-March 2021) indicates the Islamic Republic’s determination to achieve this goal.

To this end, the Iranian ministries besides the private sector outlined their programs for the surge in production in the past year, and pursued the set objectives seriously in this due.

It is clear that among different ministries, the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade was one with a somehow heavier responsibility to materialize the motto of the year.

The ministry managed to fulfill its duty as the production of some major industrial products was noticeably increased in the previous year.

One of the sectors, which achieved outstanding output growth, was the tire production industry. 

The country's tire industry, despite the continuation of sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic conditions, as well as some domestic restrictions, has had a thriving and successful year overall; a year that was accompanied by record-breaking production and entry into some new fields.

In this regard, breaking of production records in the production of various types of tires was witnessed, and for the first time the annual output surpassed 24 million tires.

In addition to the successes achieved in terms of the output amount, the tire manufacturers entered new areas including production of the wide base tires and the tires of SUVs.

Wide base tires, which are a new generation of the heavy vehicles’ tires, were produced for the first time in the West Asia by the Iranian producers.

In recent years, with the high investment making of domestic companies and with more emphasis on research and development (R&D), the production of this type of tires with a high-quality standard has been on the agenda, it is while in the past, Iran had to rely on foreign aid to change the generation of tires.

Mostafa Tanha, the spokesman of the Iranian Tire Syndicate, has recently said, “The investments made by companies in the past years in the field of research and development (R&D) and equipment and machinery, are now bearing fruit and we are witnessing the prosperity of companies.”

Now, as the approach of strengthening domestic production is also pursuing in the current Iranian calendar year, which is named “Production: Support and the Elimination of Obstacles”, tire production industry is among the sectors focused for the materialization of this motto.

Iran accounts for 41 percent of tire output in West Asia, according to Mohsen Safdari, the deputy director of the non-metal industries office of the Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry.

Development of the country’s tire production industry, not only is to materialize self-reliance, but also is to boost non-oil export and get a larger share of the regional market for Iran.

MA/MA