A worker at the Iran Aluminum Company

Buyers once again showed no interest in shares of Iran Aluminum Company (Iralco) on Saturday. Following the failure to sell 33 million shares of the company on November 27, the stocks were divided in two blocks--first of which was floated on Saturday. The company met the same fate as that of another state-owned giant Mobarakeh Steel Complex, ISNA said. Block sale of shares of the two companies found no buyers due to high price of stocks. Each share was priced 16,900 rials. The other reason for the unsuccessful offering was that no investor was able to pay in cash for purchasing such a large number of shares in block. Shares of companies are being transferred to the private sector in line with Article 44 of the Constitution which seeks large-scale privatization in key economic areas and downsizing the government. So far, shares of six state firms including National Iranian Copper Industries Company, Khuzestan Steel Company, Mobarakeh Steel Complex, Khorasan Steel Company, Power Plant Projects Management Company and Iran Aluminum Company have been offered in the stock exchange. Deputy head of Privatization Organization Esmael Gholami stated that the decision about terms of offering shares of the two companies (Iralco and Mobarakeh) was taken by the cabinet and High Council for Share Transfer. In an interview with ISNA, he said that the organization had earlier announced block sale of such great numbers of shares in cash would fail. Only major companies including Social Security Investments Company and State Retirement Fund had purchasing power to buy such number of shares, he explained. “And since they were certain no other purchaser can buy the shares, they waited to purchases by installments in future.“ Blaming high price of shares, Gholami said if the price per share had been lower, they might have been sold.

Oman has proposed to invest $2 billion in developing Kish gas field, announced managing director of Iranian Offshore Oil Company, Mahmoud Zirakchian.
He noted that the preliminary proposal has been received and following expert studies, Iran will make its final decision by next month, IRIB said.
The official noted that the proposal includes establishment of a joint company to undertake investment and gas export to Oman.
He stated that once Iran’s decision is finalized, a contract will be signed to export about one billion cubic feet of gas per day to Oman via a 500-km pipeline.
Meanwhile, Zirakchian further disclosed that Iran and Bahrain will form a working group by the end of December to study gas export to Bahrain.
He said that the memorandum of understanding to the effect was signed during President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent visit to Bahrain.
He noted that when the plan becomes operational, about one billion cubic feet of gas would be exported to Bahrain per day.
He stated that Farsi Gas Field is the first option for gas export to Bahrain.
Earlier in September, Zirakchain announced that studies are being conducted on the infrastructures of Kish Island to establish the company’s fifth oil and gas operational zone in the Persian Gulf and the Straits of Hormuz.
He stated that the location of a gas pressure station and a giant gas field with a capacity of 48 trillion cubic meters has made the island a strategic hydrocarbon zone in the Persian Gulf.
He added that the island can play a focal role in purchasing goods and installations as well as transferring systems for oil and gas industries.

Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has approved a loan of $45 million to the Power Plant Projects Management Company (MAPNA).
According to IRNA, the financial assistance is extended to the state-owned company to import goods, spare parts and other products needed its projects.
Public Relations Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance reported that the IDB loan to MAPNA is the largest sum extended to an Iranian company within the framework of Import Trade Financing Operations (ITFO).
The ITFO facilitates import of development goods on deferred payment basis and to promote trade (import) among IDB member countries.
The firm, a subsidiary of the Energy Ministry, is one of the main companies up for privatization in line with Article 44 of the Constitution.
The article seeks large-scale privatization in key economic sectors which were off limits of private enterprises for almost three decades as well as downsizing the government. MAPNA shares were offered twice this year previously in the bourse to evaluate its price.
The Islamic Development Bank is an international financial institution established in pursuance of the Declaration of Intent issued by the Conference of Finance Ministers of Muslim Countries. The bank was formally opened on October 20, 1975.
Functions of the bank are to participate in equity capital and grant loans for productive projects and enterprises besides providing financial assistance to member countries in other forms for economic and social development.

The 190th meeting of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris has called for a new strategy vis-ˆ-vis international trade.
The call for the development of a new strategy for the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), enabling it to play a more active role in international trade as the representative of the world’s private sectors, was the most important issue raised in its recent meeting in Paris, Mohammad Nahavandian, the chairman of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines (ICCIM), told the Central Bureau of News.
Among the issues raised by Iran was the economic restrictions imposed by certain countries and resorting to such unhelpful policies as economic sanctions, which prevent the realization of an equitable and all-embracing trend of globalization. Nahavandian said.
Upon Iran’s initiative, talks were held on the sidelines of the meeting among the delegates from the Group of 8 Muslim countries, in which it was decided to hold the group’s meetings alongside the ICC sessions on a regular basis to discuss issues such as facilitating visa issuance procedures for one another’s businessmen, holding joint expos concurrently with the ICC sessions and strengthening relations among the banking systems of Islamic countries.
According to Nahavandian, a meeting was also held with the International Federation of Chambers of Commerce, in which Iran proposed that in view of rising oil prices and its adverse impacts on the cost of imports for developing countries, cooperation among oil producers and consumers should be strengthened and all restrictions on investment in oil and gas industries should be lifted.
The next ICC meeting will be held in Malaysia in 2009.

Beijing-Tehran flights will increase to five per week.

Deputy head of Civil Aviation Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran (CAOIRI), Alireza Manzari said that the number of flights between Iran and China will increase.
He told ISNA on Saturday that an agreement to the effect was signed with Chinese civil aviation officials during a recent visit to Beijing by Iranian officials.
As per the contract, Iranian and Chinese airlines will operate five flights between Tehran and Beijing per week, he noted.
Manzari pointed out that currently there were two flights between Beijing and Tehran operated by Islamic Republic of Iran Airlines.
Negotiations have also been held to operate seven flights per week between Tehran and Shanghai by Iranian and Chinese airlines, the official said.
Both sides are agreed on the generalities of the cooperation, he stated, expressing hope that the related deal would be signed in this regard.
Trade cooperation between Iran and China is booming on the back of cordial political ties between the hydrocarbon-rich country and the Asian giant.
Chinese businessmen have invested in many development projects in Iran including the Tehran underground railway network and Tehran-Shomal Highway linking the capital to the plush Caspian coast.
China has also undertaken oil and gas development projects in the country while many Iranian merchants are involved in export-import business from and to China.

Regular shipping services between Iran and Africa will be launched on December 6, announced Deputy Commerce Minister for international affairs, Mehdi Ghazanfari.
In an interview with MNA, Ghazanfari stated that the scheme was made operational through joint investment by Iran Trade Development Organization and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL).
“IRISL will operate from Bandar Abbas port to the east and south coast of Africa and from west and north coast of Africa back to Bandar Abbas with the aim of responding to the increasing demand for transporting non-oil goods to the continent and in line with government trade with Africa.“
“According to the plan, vessels will ply between Bandar Abbas to the African ports of Mombasa (Kenya), Zanzibar (Tanzania) as well as Durban in South Africa,“ he said.
He added that on the return trip, the vessels will ply between Alexandria (Egypt), Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Freetown (Sierra Leone).
Referring to the costs incurred by shipping lines he added that IRISL will pay some expenses of these lines and Iranian exporters and importers will be given 10 percent discount.
IRISL is responsible for providing services and facilities to exporters and importers and transports over 22 million tons of cargo annually.
IRISL has 112 oceangoing vessels, three regional offices in Europe, the Far East, and the Middle East, offices in Italy, Britain, Germany, China, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Libya, and South Africa, and over 110 certified representatives across the world.
Meanwhile, speaking at a seminar on Iran-Africa trade opportunities, First Vice President Parviz Davoudi said the country plans to develop trade in technical and engineering, dam building, power transmission, and telecommunication fields with Africa.
Putting Iran transactions with Africa (excluding oil exports to South Africa) at $600 million annually, the official stated that trade rose by 60 percent this year compared to the figures for last year.

Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mohammad Jahromi has stated that a plan to dispatch Iranian workers abroad has been unsuccessful due to what he called ’unpractical demand’ of jobseekers.
He, however, did not elaborate on these ’unpractical demand’ of workforce willing to work in other countries.
The minister told MNA on Saturday that the ministry had not had much success in implementing the scheme to dispatch workforce abroad which is viewed as a solution to Iran’s persistent unemployment.
The ministry’s target was to dispatch over 40,000 Iranian workers to foreign countries in the year to March 2008.
According to the World Bank report, Iran had a one-billion-dollar share out of the total $21 billion remittances by workers from MENA states including 18 Middle East and North African countries in 2006.
About 970,000 Iranians, accounting for 1.4 percent of Iran’s population, are living abroad. Austria, Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States are main destinations for Iranian expatriates.
Turning to the domestic job market, Jahromi stated that as job seekers become more educated, some provinces are facing shortage of simple laborers. For the first time in a decade, Iran’s unemployment rate reached a single-digit figure this summer. According to Statistics Center, the unemployment rate in the country reached 9.9 percent after being above 10 percent for more than a decade.

Tehran will host the 17th International Fair from December 5 to 9.

Head of Furniture Exporters Association has put the revenues earned from furniture exported by the association at $2.5 million in the year to March 2007.
Speaking on the eve of the 17th International Furniture Exhibition, Alireza Mohit said that Persian Gulf states and Central Asian countries are considered as the main markets for Iranian furniture products, according to IRNA.
He pointed out that domestic furniture producers face structural problems. Once these are overcome, furniture exports will witness a rising trend, he added.
The official regretted that the unfavorable situation in terms of procuring wood and zero tariffs on furniture import would benefit other countries.
He said that wood is not the sole raw material needed by the furniture industry, adding they also require other wood-based products.
Pointing to the 30-percent tariffs on timber products, he said that such amount of tariff on products such as fiber, MDF, chipboard, etc. would create problems for domestic producers.
Mohit continued that about 600,000 cubic meters of MDF were imported in the year to March 2007, naming Turkey as the top MDF exporter to the
country.
He continued that the country imported about 400,000 cubic meters of MDF during March-September, adding that if the trend continues, domestic furniture industry would require at least one million cubic meters of MDF by March 2008.
The official predicted that the removal of 30-percent import tariffs on wood-based products would create grounds for increasing export to Turkey.
The international furniture fair is slated for December 5-9 in Tehran.

Minister of industries and mines has announced that the production line for Peugeot Pars, a sedan made by Iranian automaker Iran Khodro, would soon be launched in Egypt.
Ali-Akbar Mehrabian, who arrived in the Egyptian capital Cairo on a three-day visit on Saturday, said that about 5,000 Peugeot Par sedans are to be manufactured per year in Cairo in the first phase, IRIB reported.
He underlined that if the demand for Peugeot Pars gains increases in the Egyptian market and conditions improve for expanding Iran’s car market, the production line for other Iranian models would also be set up in Egypt.
The minister hoped that mutual cooperation in cement, power and textile industries would be possible and the private sectors of the two nations would also become involved.
He undertook the trip to conduct official negotiations with Egyptian officials.
Mehrabian said that he was invited by his Egyptian counterpart Rasheed Mohammed Rasheed. He pointed out that he would convey the message of peace and unity of the Iranians to the Egyptians, expressing hope that a new base could be built for mutual commercial and industrial cooperation.
He said that the two nations, with deep cultural and historical roots, have many fields for cooperation.