21.07.2017

Aktuelle Hinweise

6% growth in Iranian Airport traffic Iran Airports Company (IAC), an arm of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development which manages 54 airports in Iran, issued a report on the most recent statistics of Iranian airports. According to the document, 121.688 takeoffs and landings were registered in the first 3 months of the current Iranian year, 21 st March to 21 st June. Compared to the same period in the previous year, an increase of 6% can be registered. While separately observed, the first 2 months experienced a growth of 8% in year-on-year comparison - the first month alone even 10%. Furthermore, IAC states, that 14.9m passengers and 145,500 tonnes of cargo were transported with these flights. Regarding domestic takeoffs and landings, 100,100 of them were recorded, indicating a 6% rise compared to the same period in the previous year as well. The country’s busiest airports were named as Mashhad International Airport, Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport as well as Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.

USD 3.6bn investment proposals to boost Iran’s renewables sector According to Iran’s Energy Minister H.E. Hamid Chitchian, his country received proposals from several international companies to invest into Iranian renewable power projects comprising a total amount of more than USD 3.6bn. H.E. Chitchian furthermore noted, that he anticipates a big leap in Iran’s sector of renewable energies within the next few years, as international investors were looking at the country as a strong market for these projects. As numerous plans are already made, foreign investments are expected to boost the entire sector and thereby add to the simplification of financing and the realisation of various anticipated projects. The minister made his remarks on the occasion of the groundbreaking ceremony of a 30MW photovoltaic plant in Jajarm in North Khorasan Province. The first phase of this project is expected to be completed in 6 months and employing 400 people, some of them permanently. Iran aims to launch several plants of 5MW to 10MW or even 30MW in order to increase the country’s renewable capacity to 5,000MW by 2022.

Britain’s easyHotel to enter Iranian market Guy Parsons, CEO of easyHotel, recently announced plans to establish the company in Iran. As easyHotel is seeking to expand in the MENA-region in general, Iran, according to him, was a good opportunity to take. Thus, it will become the 2 nd country in the region where the chain’s hotels are launched besides the United Arab Emirates. According to Parsons, the chain being part of the easyGroup, which holds a 34.6% stake, will be managed by a franchisee in Iran and subcontracted to local staff, hereby expanding without the risk of making direct capital investment. The agreement signed with British companies 3SV Limited and MHA Hatfield Limited anticipate the development of 500 rooms in Iran. After sanctions on Iran were lifted in January 2016, several hotel chains entered the Iranian market again, such as France’s Accor and Spain’s Melia Hotels International, and are now followed by easyHotel.

Punitive tariffs on Mobarakeh Steel Co. After the investigation into hot-rolled steel imports from several countries into the European Union has been concluded, the EU-commission now plans to impose duties of up to 33% upon these countries, including Brazil, Russia, the Ukraine and Iran. The punitive trade tariffs come in line with anti-dumping measures to aid European steel producers, who initiated the investigation by a complaint through the European steel association Eurofer. Research showed, that in 2016 hot-rolled steel took 12.6% of the EU market in contrast to taking 7.5% in 2013 while prices fell about a quarter during the same period. Hence, Iran’s Mobarakeh Steel Company was targeted with a duty of 23%.

New US-sanctions against Iran Despite having confirmed that Iran adheres to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the US government recently imposed new sanctions against the country. According to the US administration, the Islamic Republic harmed the JCPOA’s spirit by undercutting “positive contributions” to peace and security in the MENA-region and worldwide. It is on these grounds that the US introduced new measures against persons and entities allegedly contributing to the development of ballistic missiles. The list includes 18 individuals and groups supporting Iran's military or Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. US citizens will be prevented from doing business with them and any assets those sanctioned might hold in the US will be frozen. Iranian Foreign Minister H.E. condemned these new measures as a violation against the JCPOA and stated, he was confused by the mixed signals being sent out by the US-government.

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