Foreign investment in Iran industrial sector to hit $10b

Foreign investment in the industrial sector is expected to reach $10 billion by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2007), the Minister of Industries and Mines Alireza Tahmasbi said on Tuesday. Calling the current year a prosperous period for Iran’s industries, he said that suitable growth is seen in many of the sector’s indexes, including production of raw steel (six percent), cement (nine percent), vehicles (between nine and ten percent), petrochemical and chemical products (between 15 and 16 percent), copper (14 percent), and minerals and metals extraction (22 percent). He also commented on the drop in some industrial products, announcing that aluminum production in 2005 and 2006 had a minus five percent decline. He also said that the electronics and the communications industries also slumped during the period.