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I I r r a a n n E E c c o o n n o o m m y y U U p p d d a a t t e e
Issue 102/2016 – Sunday September 25th
Content
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Boeing and Airbus
representatives in Tehran to resolve remaining legal issues on airplane deliveries
The Wall Street Journal wrote on September 21st that the US Treasury has given plane makers Boeing Co. and Airbus Group the all-clear to deliver jet-liners to Iran Air and therefore, Airbus is
allowed to deliver 17 planes of A320s and A330s to this Iranian airliner. According to Airbus Group Spokesman Justin Dubon, some deliveries may occur as early as this year and to sell the remaining planes to Iran, Airbus needs a second license.
In January 2016, Airbus and Iran Air signed €22.8 billion worth agreements for the delivery of 118 airplanes. The 17 Airbus that following the Treasury
endorsement will be delivered to Iran will totally be worth around
$1.8 billion, according to the estimation of the Associated Press.
The AP also underlines that under the Boeing’s deal, Iran Air will purchase 80 planes worth $17.6 billion and that the deliveries will begin from 2017 running until 2015. Iran Air will also lease 27 new Boeing 737s that would worth $25 billion in total.
Minister of Road & Urban Development Abbas Akhundi appeared in a televised interview on Friday night and said the purchase of new planes from Boeing and Airbus takes place after 50 years, and boasted that
“even the powerful Israeli lobbies in the US couldn’t prevent the deal.” He explained that Iran’s agreements include a deal with Airbus for the purchase of 118 planes, with ATR for the purchase of 20 planes, and with Boeing for the purchase of 108 planes. “This is a very great event for Iran in the aviation industry and in the
international trade,” said the minister.
Maghsoud As’adi-Samani, the secretary of the Association of Iranian Airlines (AIRA) told Mehr News that apart from (state-run) Iran Air, other Iranian airliners are also in negotiations for purchasing airplanes. He explained that the purchase of airplanes will be carried out through finance methods and in this regard, finance contracts have already been signed between Iran Air and some foreign companies.
Meanwhile, Vice Minister Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan has said that negotiations with Airbus
representatives will be pursued this week in Tehran and that since technical and financial issues have been finalized, the two sides are supposed to finish legal aspects of the deal. “The banking and finance issues have been resolved between Iran Air, Airbus and the leasing company. Airbus is now at the stage of designing a logo of Iran Air to be put on the planes,” said Fakhrieh-Kashan. “Since the purchases will be financed, no money is paid and hence, there would be no banking problem,” he added.
According to Tasnim News, Fakhrieh-Kashan said Iran managed to get a significant discount of 50 percent from Airbus and that the whole of the
purchase value (for this stage) would be less than $10 billion. In regards to the deal with Boeing, the vice minister said this company has already sent the draft of the contract and its officials will visit Tehran soon for the fifth time.
In a TV interview aired on Saturday night, President
2 Rouhani’s Chief of Staff
Mohammad Nahavandian
criticized what he termed as “the US’ unfulfillment of some of its commitments” and said
permission to Airbus and Boeing was pending for six months but was suddenly issued with haste just one day before the
[ministerial] meeting of the joint commission on the
implementation of JCPOA (23 September, Vienna). Nahavandian however expressed satisfaction with the deal and said “We should not forget that the issue of
sanctions against airplanes had nothing to do with the nuclear- related sanctions and it was actually the outstanding ability of the Iranian nuclear negotiators that managed to raise this issue during the talks.”
According to ISNA, Nahavandian said the two sides have come to terms on technical issues,
including a concern raised by the other side on the dual-purpose nature of some of the parts they are going to deliver.
TPO head visit Korea to discuss strengthening cooperation
Vice minister of Industry, Mine &
Trade Mojtaba Khosrowtaj led an Iranian delegation to Korea and met CEO of KOTRA. He supported establishing joint R&D centers with Korean companies and said cooperation in developing the export of goods with Korean brands is among the requests of
Iran in strengthening trade relations with the Republic of Korea. According to the official website of TPO, Khosrowtaj who is also the head of the Iranian Trade Promotion Organization said Iran wants Korean companies to take into consideration an increase in the share of Iran in assembling manufactured goods. He met KOTRA CEO Jaehong Kim and the two sides agreed on establishing Tehran and Seoul table that would help Iranian and Korean traders to get familiar with capacities and needs of each other. The TPO head said joint investment and developing the molding industry especially in manufacturing home appliances are among the issues overlooked and encouraged Korean companies to take this issue into consideration for future cooperation.
The deputy minister said Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine & Trade Mohammadreza Nematzadeh is scheduled to visit Seoul in the Persian month of Bahman
(covering a period from 20 Jan to 18 Feb 2017) to attend the 12th Joint Iran Korea Economic Forum.
Iran unveils 10-year maritime strategic plan soon
Minister of Industry, Mine & Trade Mohammadreza Nematzadeh said after almost two years of planning, document for the 10-Year Marine Industry Strategic Plan will be unveiled by mid November, ILNA wrote on Saturday. “Currently, a major proportion of commercial
transactions in the world are being carried out through sea and in Iran, plans should be in place for increasing the share of this sector in job creation,” said the minister in an address to the inauguration ceremony of the 4th International Maritime Exhibition of Iran (Sea Expo 2016) on Saturday.
Nematzadeh didn’t elaborate on details of the plan but in his speech he emphasized on the necessity or turning sour into drinking water to counter the problem of drought, increasing the contribution of seas in the
country’s trade relations with the world, and provision of loan facilities from the National Development Fund to the private sector to invest in maritime sector.
According to the Iran Daily
newspaper, the Sea Expo 2016 will last until Sept 26th and companies from Italy, Germany, Japan, France, Britain, Korea, Oman, Kazakhstan and China are displaying their products. The exhibition focuses on services and equipment in shipping industry, marine construction, hydrography and mapping, offshore oil and gas equipment, ship construction and repair services, maritime law and fishery industry. Minister of Road
& Urban Development Abbas Akhundi, Industry, Mine and Trade Minister Mohammadreza
Nematzadeh, and PMO President Mohammad Saeed-Nejad attended the inaugural ceremony of the event.
