Iran�s exports of home appliances declined in the five months to late August mainly because of coronavirus restrictions and tariff issues.

An official from Iran�s Trade Promotion Organization said home appliance exports in the first five months of the current calendar year amounted to 99,000 metric tons worth $139 million.

Mohsen Montazeri said exports covered a wide range of devices and gadgets including fridges, washing machines, boilers, TV sets, heaters and swamp coolers.

Montazeri said trade restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus as well as a 10-fold increase in tariffs in Iraq on electronic devices imported from Iran had contributed to declined exports over the five-month period.

However, a report by the semi-official ISNA news agency on Saturday suggested that exports of home appliances from Iran had surged significantly over the past two years mainly because a series of American sanctions caused Iran�s manufacturing sector to grow at the expense of lower sales of crude oil.

The report cited an industry source as saying that total yearly exports of home appliances had amounted to nearly�$170 million in 2018-219 and before the sanctions started to hit Iran�s rial against other currencies.

Abbas Hashemi, who leads Iran�s Association of Home Appliances, said exports have increased despite the fact that Iranian manufacturers are still short of targets defined to respond to a growing domestic demand.

Iran�s ministry of industries (MIMT) expects annual output in home appliances sector to reach 11.6 million devices in the year to late March 2021 although domestic demand is expected to exceed 12.5 million devices against the backdrop of near-zero imports into the country.

 

Source: Press TV