The 12th International Iran Plast Exhibition opened at Tehran's International Fairground on Monday.
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Managing Director of National Petrochemical Company Reza Norouz-Zadeh, and representatives of 15 countries, including Germany, Switzerland, Cyprus, Belgium, India, Turkey, China and South Korea, were in attendance for the event's inauguration.
The four-day event, which will conclude on September 27, is touted as the biggest plastic industry event of Middle East and the world’s prime exhibition in the field, IRNA reported.
NPC is the organizer of Iran Plast Exhibition while the Trade Promotion Organization and Iran International Exhibition Company are sponsors.
Germany’s plastics and rubber machinery trade association, VDMA, highlighted the importance of Iranian market ahead of the exhibition.
At nearly €38 million, Germany ranked second to China in terms of machinery exports to Iran in 2017, posting an 87.3% growth compared to the previous year.
However, for the first six months of 2018, German plastics and rubber machinery exports to the country came in at just €15.4 million–30.9% lower than in last year’s first half.
The sudden decline reflected US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from an international nuclear agreement and reimpose economic sanctions on Iran in May.
Overall, Iran’s import of plastics and rubber machinery fell 13.4% year-on-year in 2017 to €205 million.
China continued to lead rubber and plastics machinery exporters to Iran by a high margin of €99 million, despite registering a 33.7% decline compared to 2016.
Trade with Italy also took a downward turn in 2017 at €16.4 million, 17.6% lower than the previous year.
Canada, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea all registered strong growth in machinery sales to Iran during 2017, while traditional suppliers, including Turkey and Austria, saw a respective decline of 10.7% and 62% in exports to the Islamic Republic.
The first iteration of Iran Plast was held in 2002. The next four editions were held annually, but from the sixth event, it became a biennale exhibition to enhance its quality, structure and organization, according to Iranplast’s website.
Last year’s and this year’s edition have been scheduled a year apart though.
