TEHRAN – Iran exported some 60 million dollars of footwear last year (March 20, 2005 through March 20, 2006), ‘which is quite a remarkable amount regarding the tough competition within the international market’.

Golnaz Nasrollahi, a deputy industries minister, told ILNA on Monday there are some 520 shoemaking units across the country. “That we have managed to find relatively enough target markets for our products shows the flexibility of the Iranian industrialists,” she noted. On the problem of unrestricted imports of foreign shoes, especially the Chinese ones, she stressed that only products with good quality should be imported. “At the same time, the government should support the domestic industry so that production costs decrease,” she said.

IRISL expects Indian-made bulk carrier in late May

TEHRAN – An Indian shipbuilder is expected to turn over a 53,000-ton bulker to the IRISL in the next few weeks.

IRISL now owns 120 of these ships with a total capacity of 3.8 million tons, the company’s managing director claimed. “We have also ordered 36 more ships to Iranian and foreign shipbuilders, which will add more than one million tons to our transportation capacity,” he said. The company will either pay for the ships or buy them through project finance contracts.

WTO’s Frangialli to attend press conference in Tehran

TEHRAN – The Italian Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization Francesco Frangialli is to attend a press conference in Tehran that coincides with the opening of an international tourism and handicrafts seminar here.

Esfandiar Mashaii, head of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO) of Iran, will accompany the WTO chief during the conference, which starts at 11 a.m. on Saturday May 13 in the IRIB Conference Hall. Frangialli and the CHTO official will discuss tourism’s correlation with handicrafts industry and also how these industries can be promoted and developed in different countries.

EG, OE units of MPC to come on stream soon

TEHRAN – An ethylene glycol unit and an ethylene oxide unit will come into line in the next two weeks at the Marun Petrochemical Complex.

A polymerupdate.com source in Iran informed the team Monday that the plant has an ethylene glycol capacity of 445,000 mt/annum and requires 300,000 mt/annum ethylene feed and a 274,000 mt/annum oxygen feed. The feedstock will be supplied out of Marun’s olefin unit and Fajr Petrochemical Complex.

Asalouyeh-Kangan soar gas pipeline being laid

ASALOUYEH, Bushehr Prov. – A pipeline that will transfer soar gas from Asalouyeh to Kangan is being laid, and the project is to be completed early next year.

The project of laying the 42-inch pipeline started last April with an over 130-million-dollar credit. Part of the soar gas produced in the 6,7 and 8 phases of the South Pars Gas Field will be transferred to the Jam Refinery through the pipes.