TEHRAN – Domestic production of equipment and parts used in the home appliance industry has saved Iran $220 million, the secretary of the Association of Industries of Household Appliances of Iran said on Monday.

Currently Iranian producers have indigenized the knowledge for manufacturing 70-75 percent of the country’s home appliance needs, Abbas Hashemi said in a press conference.

According to Hashemi, the Association of Industries of Household Appliances of Iran has established a parts manufacturing department, the purpose of which is to promote the position of component makers in the association to deepen domestic manufacturing of the required parts and equipment in this industry while providing a platform for home appliance manufacturers and component makers to stay connected.

The official noted that the country has managed to export up to $250 million of home appliances in the previous years and currently, the production and assembly lines for Iranian home appliances have been set up in some of the countries in the region and Iran is exporting its products to the target markets by sending Completely Knocked Down (CKD) kits to the mentioned production lines.

Iran has various comparative advantages in this industry in terms of supplying raw materials such as steel sheets, petrochemicals, copper and brass sections, the abundance and low costs of energy and workforce in addition to the strategic position of the country, compared to other countries in the region, he said.

“So, the development of exports to countries in the region and to the neighboring countries is possible even despite the strong regional competitors,” Hashemi added.

In recent years, the Iranian government has been following a new strategy for supporting domestic production to neutralize the impacts of the U.S. sanctions while reducing the reliance of the economy on oil revenues.

The home appliances sector has not been an exemption and like many other areas, the production of home appliances has witnessed a significant rise in the past two years so that in the previous calendar year 1398 (ended on March 19) this industry’s production capacity increased by 10 percent compared to the preceding year.

Iranian Industry, Mining and Trade data indicates that the country’s home appliance manufacturers produced 2,801,100 sets of refrigerators, freezers, washing machines and televisions in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-November 20).

EF/MA