Iranian UPVC profile producers are facing bankruptcy as a result of the high cost of raw materials and rampant imports of cheap foreign products, the head of Iranian UPVC Profile, Door and Window Producers Association said.
“Our significantly high production costs have opened the door to low-quality foreign products,” Hossein Toosi was also quoted as saying by ISNA.
He noted that currently about half of the domestic demand is met by local producers, while the rest is supplied by Turkey.
This is while the UPVC industry’s 150,000-ton annual production capacity is three times more than domestic demand, which means there is potential for producers to export to international markets.
“Most UPVC producers will risk bankruptcy in less than a year unless imports are halted. Production is gradually becoming uneconomical and we are simply unable to compete with these [cheap] prices [of imported products],” he said.
Toosi blames petrochemical plants for the high raw material prices, saying they fail to prioritize their supplies to domestic UPVC producers over exports, which compels manufacturers to make indirect purchase of feedstock at higher prices.
The recession in the domestic construction market has added salt to injury for UPVC producers, who previously experienced a boom among other manufacturers of construction materials owing to the ill-famed Mehr Housing Scheme–a large-scale construction program initiated in 2007 by the previous administration to provide two million low-income people with housing units through free land and cheap credit.
The plan, however, slowed down due to lack of funding, which dragged down domestic demand for construction materials.
According to Toosi, domestic demand for UPVC, which once stood at more than 100,000 tons per year at its peak, has now been halved.
