Transportation Subsidies for Cement Exporters

Cement exporters will receive $3 for each ton of shipment as transportation subsidies from Thursday, the head of Iran Trade Promotion Organization, Mojtaba Khosrotaj, was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency on Wednesday. Cement industry officials have been lobbying the government for well over a year now for financial assistance so they can expand their exports to new markets, Africa in particular. Iranian producers have been forced to retreat from Iraq and Afghanistan lately due to the neighboring countries’ protectionist measures imposed for shielding local producers from foreign competition. The Iranian cement industry boasts an output capacity of about 90 million tons, only 56% of which are used in the local market. Exports, the only way out of a domestic demand deadlock, stand at a maximum of 7-8 million tons and in the best-case scenario can reach 10 million tons by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2018), the Cement Employers Association said.