TEHRAN- The Advisor to the Minister and Director General of the Ministerial Office of the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade announced the full readiness of the ministry to meet the needs of industries and said: "By adopting necessary measures to supply raw materials for the steel and petrochemical industries and offering them on the Commodity Exchange (capital market), the continuity of production and market stabilization will be guaranteed."

According to IRNA from the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade, Seyyed Abbas Hosseini, at a ceremony honoring the outgoing CEO and introducing the new head of the Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO), and given the fundamental role of this ministry in supplying, producing, and regulating the market in the third economic and imposed war, said: "The ministry's support headquarters has been formed since the beginning of the war to support production, distribution, and market regulation, and has played a strategic role in stabilizing the situation during difficult days."

Hosseini stated that production has never stopped during the days of crisis, adding: "With the forecasts made in various sectors, necessary raw materials, including steel sheets, have been secured for a sufficient period, both through the Commodity Exchange (capital market) and through other means."

The Director General of the Ministerial Office of the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade also continued: "In the petrochemical sector as well, necessary forecasts for the coming months have been made, and products have been offered on the exchange (capital market) at appropriate prices."

-------------Maintaining production & activating potential capacities: important priorities of ISIPO

The Advisor to the Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade considered maintaining production and developing and utilizing idle and potential capacities as two important priorities of ISIPO in the new year and said: "Factory-less production is a path to improving productivity that should be promoted so that nominal capacities are activated."

He stated that the prerequisite for economic development is increasing the depth of domestic manufacturing, adding: "Technology companies, innovative companies, and knowledge-based companies must be developed, and the Organization for Development and Modernization of Small and Medium Industries (ISIPO) must advance these two actions to improve productivity, increase production capacity, and reduce currency dependency."

Later in the ceremony, Reza Ansari, the former CEO of ISIPO and the new head of the General Industries Deputy of the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade, considered the organization's successes to be the result of teamwork and emphasized the necessity of comprehensive cooperation for the development of the country.

Tahmoures Lahouti Ashkouri, the new head of the Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO), also expressed gratitude for the support of the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade, and said: "With all our strength and by utilizing the capacity of ISIPO and its provincial subsidiary companies, we will provide worthy services to economic activists, industrialists, and stakeholders."

It is worth noting that Seyyed Mohammad Atabak, the Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade, in separate decrees, appointed Reza Ansari as the head of the General Industries Deputy and Tahmoures Lahouti Ashkouri as the head of the Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization.

Meanwhile, on April 19, the Deputy Secretary of the Tehran Provincial Council for Dialogue between Government and the Private Sector announced an examination of the challenges and crises caused by the war in the trade sector, aiming to expedite the processes of order registration and import of essential goods.

According to IRNA from the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Hooman Hajipour, referring to a joint meeting attended by the head of the Trade Promotion Organization, as well as Mohammad-Reza Ghafrollahi (head of the Trade Facilitation and Development Committee) and Ahmad-Reza Farshchian (member of the Tehran Chamber's Board of Representatives and head of the Import Committee of the Iran Chamber), stated that 10 proposals and solutions have been put forward to accelerate the supply of goods and provide access to raw materials for production units.

Hajipour explained that "facilitating trade processes through interaction with state institutions and via the Government-Private Sector Dialogue Council is being pursued," adding that during the meeting with the head of the Trade Promotion Organization, trade barriers and import-export challenges—especially under current conditions, as the country has endured a 40-day war—were reviewed.

According to Hajipour, it was agreed in the meeting to reduce unnecessary administrative processes and review certain systems. Responsibility for some of these trade systems lies with the Trade Promotion Organization, while others fall under the currency working group of the Central Bank.

Hajipour noted that in the current situation, it is necessary to change the origin, destination, and entry customs points in some cases, and these changes require system updates. 

He added that based on negotiations with the managers of the Trade Promotion Organization, it was decided that for the import of essential industrial goods, the origin, destination, and entry customs point can be edited without requiring approval, system waiting periods, or currency optimization reviews.

According to the Deputy Secretary of the Tehran Provincial Council for Dialogue between Government and the Private Sector, outstanding order registrations from the past Iranian year 1404 (ended on March 20) for importers—especially those who achieved a certain percentage of customs clearance last year—will be exempt from systemic quota restrictions and currency optimization limits.

Hajipour also announced the extension of order registrations until May 30, 2026, and stated that for order registrations from the year 1404 that achieved 90% customs clearance, efforts have been made to allow the remaining 10% to be cleared against a letter of guarantee, considering the wartime situation and related issues.

He stated that under the current circumstances, the priority right for registering orders for 2,800 essential industrial goods will be removed, and the waiting time in the currency allocation queue will be added to the validity period of the order registration.

He emphasized that given the necessity of securing goods and boosting exports, if importers of the 2,800 essential industrial goods use foreign currency obtained from their own or others' exports, they will be taken out of the currency allocation queue. This also applies to order registrations that have already expired.

Hajipour further said that it was also agreed that the 2,800 essential industrial goods, if available in customs warehouses, would be removed from the order registration queue. Furthermore, if these goods are covered by the annual quota, they will be placed in the customs clearance queue; otherwise, they will be cleared through import without currency transfer.

Highlighting the importance of securing raw materials for production units, he said that reviewing the quotas of production units was another topic discussed in the meeting with the head of the Trade Promotion Organization. Due to the damage inflicted on certain industries—including steel and petrochemicals—during the recent war, it is essential to secure raw materials for production units that were previously produced domestically through imports. Therefore, it is necessary to seriously review the quotas of production units and take this consideration into account when determining the currency needs of production units.

Meanwhile, in a joint meeting between the Ministry of Agriculture and regulatory bodies as well as private sector associations, on April 16, issues related to the supply chain of essential goods were reviewed.

According to Mehr News Agency, a meeting to examine and determine mechanisms for supplying essential goods from the northern ports was held at the Ministry's headquarters, attended by the deputy ministers of agriculture, representatives from relevant regulatory bodies, and production and trade associations from the agricultural sector.

During this session, topics such as increasing silo storage capacity, improving the performance of systems, the necessity of strengthening the private sector and enhancing its financial capacity and trust, increasing port facilities and reducing warehousing costs, avoiding parallel work in the goods clearance process, import in exchange for export, as well as managing fuel supply for machinery and managing transportation costs, were discussed and reviewed.

MA