4 January 20, 2019 ECONOMIC NEWS On 40th Anniversary of Islamic Revolution Chabahar Best Strategic Point for Iran to Inaugurate 576 Investment: Official CHABAHAR (Dispatches) - Managing Director of Chabahar Industrial Projects Free Trade and Industrial Zone Abdo Rarim Kordi has said is According to the scheduled Iran’s best strategic point for program, mineral and industrial domestic and foreign entrepreneurs projects would become operational and investors, as it is connected to in the provinces of Yazd and free and oceanic waters. Bushehr in particular. “Chabahar is one of the significant Project for the production of Iranian points, as it provides the sulfate and sulfuric acid in Kerman best chance for reducing burden of province is the largest mineral U.S. oppressive sanctions against project in the country which Iran,” he said. would be put into operation during Seminar and Exhibition of the Ten-Day Dawn celebration, Sistan-Baluchestan Investment Sanjabi observed. Opportunities is held annually in a crucial role in trade and transit cooperation and synergy of Removing industrial and Chabahar to introduce investment of goods, after its transportation different sectors,” he said. production barriers in different opportunities in the region, Kordi infrastructure is completed. The First Seminar-cum- cities of the country have been said. “Chabahar is the only point of Iran Exhibition of Sistan-Baluchestan put atop agenda of the ministry, he Describing Chabahar as the that can prepare suitable conditions Investment Opportunities opened said. gateway for development of for the country’s economy outside on Friday and wrapped up on TEHRAN (Dispatches) - Head of the 40 anniversary of the victory of “Salient achievements of the eastern Iran, he said that it can play the economic sanctions through Saturday. Administrative Development and the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Islamic Republic of Iran in the Renovation Center of the Ministry Shirazi said that 576 industrial, mineral and industrial sector are of Industry, Mine and Trade mineral and trade projects, with a listed and boasted in a book entitled China Offers to Ramp Up U.S. Imports: Report Jahanbakhsh Sanjabi Shirazi has total cost of 686,000 billion rials, ‘40 Years of Production and Trade’ said Iran will mark the completion would be put into operation. to be unveiled concurrent with the of 576 industrial, mineral and The official added that 19 of 40th victory anniversary of the By raising annual goods imports trade projects during the Ten-Day these projects, completed with Islamic Revolution in the presence from the United States by a Fajr (Dawn) celebrations (to start an investment of 458,000 billion of Minister of Industry, Mine and combined value of more than $1 on February 01), to commemorate rials, will offer 7,000 jobs. Trade Reza Rahmani,” he added. trillion, China would seek to reduce its trade surplus, which last year stood at $323 billion, to zero by 2024, one of the people told Persian Gulf Bridge to Link Qeshm Island Bloomberg. It was unclear how the offer to Bandar Abbas differed from what China pledged when U.S. President Donald Trump Bank has said to the media that, the and Chinese President Xi Jinping most important project in the free met in Buones Aires in December. zones is the Persian Gulf Bridge At that meeting, China offered that remained undone due to more than $1.2 trillion in additional disagreements over environmental commitments on trade, Treasury factors. Secretary Steve Mnuchin said. He added that the negotiations Reuters reported on Jan. 9 that U.S. with the Department of Container vessels are loaded with cargo at the Port of Qingdao, in officials used three days of trade Environment are reaching a eastern China’s Shandong province. talks with Chinese counterparts positive point and it possibly will in Beijing to demand more details agree with the project. on China’s pledge to make big “There have been remarks BEIJING (Dispatches) - China reconfigure the relation between the purchases of American goods. that the project will change the has offered to go on a six-year two countries, Bloomberg reported, China offered similar commitments, condition of the island and affect buying spree to ramp up imports citing people familiar with the albeit on a smaller scale, during the sea environment. Some say from the United States in order to matter. talks in Washington last May. The Persian Gulf Bridge is being constructed for a length of 2.4 connecting the island to mainland kilometers. does not cause any problems. All of these are being reviewed to TEHRAN (Dispatches) - Iran The Persian Gulf Bridge is a finalize the decision,” he added. is building its longest cross-sea 2.2-kilometer railway bridge IEA: Rebalancing of Global Oil Market The Persian Gulf Bridge, bridge, linking the Qeshm island currently under construction. It being constructed for a length in the Persian Gulf to its coast will link Qeshm Island to Bandar of 2.4 kilometers and a width of VIENNA (Dispatches) - to Be Gradual in Bandar Abbas to join a transit Abbas Port on mainland Iran. 32 meters, includes a two-lane Despite the signing of a new corridor which stretches all the Secretary of the Supreme Council causeway and a rail line, secretary Vienna Agreement, the journey way up to the Caspian Sea and the of Iran’s Free Trade, Industrial and of Iran’s free trade zones Akbar to a balanced global oil market Central Asia. Special Economic Zones Morteza Torkan said. will take time and is more likely to be a marathon than a sprint, according to the International Energy Agency’s first Oil EU to Veto Siemens, Alstom Rail Merger - Sources Market Report in 2019. BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Siemens and Alstom’s plan competition. On the supply side, IEA to create a Franco-German rail champion faces a veto German conglomerate Siemens has already offered said, “While Saudi Arabia from EU antitrust regulators after the companies’ to license parts of its high-speed train business and sell is determined to protect its concessions fell short, people familiar with the matter parts of its signalling operations after the European price aspirations by delivering in the output deal saw higher year, IEA has left unchanged for said. Commission voiced concerns. substantial production cuts, output, including Mexico. now its forecast for growth of The deal would create the world’s second largest Siemens had initially offered to share its high-speed there is less clarity with regard There are also signs elsewhere 1.3 million b/d. rail company with combined revenues of around 15 train technology, which allows trains to travel faster to its Russian partner.” that market rebalancing will be “While the other two giants billion euros (£13 billion), roughly half the size of than 250 km per hour, for five years with third parties. Data show that Russia gradual, IEA said. The trajectory voluntarily cut output, the U.S., China’s state-owned CRRC Corp Ltd but twice the The EU competition enforcer, however, wanted increased crude oil production of Iran’s production and exports already the biggest liquids size of Canada’s Bombardier . a longer duration, a demand which the company in December to a new record remains important. In December, supplier, will reinforce its Germany and France back the deal, saying it would rejected. near 11.5 million b/d and it is total Iranian exports increased to leadership as the world’s No. 1 help secure the competitiveness of the European There were also competition concerns regarding unclear when it will cut and by more than 1.3 million b/d. With crude producer. By the middle rail industry. However, European Competition the companies’ market power in rolling stock and how much. Other nonmembers U.S. waivers allowing Iran’s of the year, U.S. crude output Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has said Europe signalling. The Commission and Siemens declined to of the Organization of Petroleum major customers to buy higher will probably be more than the cannot build industrial champions by undermining comment. Exporting Countries joining volumes than was previously capacity of either Saudi Arabia thought, more oil will remain in or Russia,” IEA said. the market in the early part of The oil demand picture also this year. is mixed. Falling prices in the ‘Trump’s Tariffs Killing American Steel’ Venezuela has seen the collapse last quarter of 2018 helped WASHINGTON (Dispatches) other sectors. Yet as graphic producer stocks followed broad 95 percent of these imports were of its oil industry slow during consumers, and there are signs - Yet nearly a year after Trump shows, since Trump announced market performance, even after intermediate goods, purchased the second half of 2018 with that trade tensions might be slapped tariffs on imported steel, steel tariffs on March 1, 2018, steel tariffs took effect. Then, by American firms, markets production falling recently by easing. In many developing the U.S. steel industry is not steel-producer stock prices have while the S&P index kept rising, anticipated that the tariffs would about 10,000 b/d each month countries, lower international oil thriving. It is reeling. Steel prices plummeted 22 percent—while steel stocks took two dives—in push up their prices, reduce their rather than by the 40,000 b/d we prices coincide with a weaker have fallen back to pre-tariff the S&P 500 index has fallen only mid-June and early August, as the output, and hurt their sales. Tariffs saw earlier in the year. dollar as the likelihood of higher levels. Employment is stagnant. three percent. graphic highlights—before re- would, in turn, drive down their The level of output from the U.S. interest rates fades for now. The clearest sign that tariffs are So why has the market soured tracking the market. purchases of domestic inputs, like U.S.—the world’s biggest However, “the mood music in not working, however, is the stock on American steel? One reason is What happened in June and steel. liquids producer—will once the global economy is not very market. that Trump’s tariffs, overall, hurt August? Just before each drop, That tariffs are hurting American again be a major factor in 2019. cheerful,” IEA said. Confidence If the president’s policies were the industry far more than they Trump released lists of imports steel, the very industry they were Total liquids production rose is weakening in several major working as planned, the steel help. covered by tranches of his first imposed to help, shows just how 2.1 million b/d in 2018. For this economies. industry should outperform For the first half of 2018, steel- $50 billion in China tariffs. Since misguided they are.