President Ebrahim Raisi met with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Sunday, ahead of his first visit to the United Nations headquarters in New York to attend the annual General Assembly.
President Ebrahim Raisi met with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Sunday, ahead of his first visit to the United Nations headquarters in New York to attend the annual General Assembly.
The second 42-megawatt unit of Zahedan medium-scale power plant in Sistan-Baluchestan Province has been connected to the country's national electricity grid, director of power plant projects at the Thermal Power Plants Holding Company said.
“TPPHC is building the medium-scale power station with a total capacity of 126 MW to increase the power production capacity of the southeastern province, prevent voltage drop in the grid, create employment and use the capabilities of local contractors and manufacturers,” the Energy Ministry’s news service Paven also quoted Farshid Haddadi as saying.
The power plant has three 42-MW units. Electricity consumption in Sistan-Baluchestan in the summer is more than what is generated by the power plants of the province. The power plant is under construction to balance output and consumption, provide stable electricity supply and meet the rising demand of the province, he added.
To complete the second phase of the National Smart Metering Program, a contract has been signed between government-affiliated Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) and SATKAB, a subsidiary of the Energy Ministry, which is in making progress, the head of Tavanir said.
“As per the agreement, SATKAB is obliged to produce and install 4.5 million smart meters in the agro, industrial, commercial and household sectors in the next two years with priority accorded to high-consuming subscribers,” Arash Kordi was also quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news service.
Equipping energy-intensive agricultural, housing and commercial units will enable Tavanir to monitor consumption remotely and if necessary, the company will be able to cut electricity supply remotely, he added.
Each year, a massive 6 billion cubic meters of water are withdrawn from the drought-stricken Kerman Province’s aquifers, which is 60% over and above global standards, a deputy manager at the provincial water company said.
“Of the total extraction, 95%, 2% and 3% are respectively used by the agro sector, industries and households,” Mohsen Asadi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Annual water deficit from ground sources has reached 1 billion cubic meters, resulting in land subsidence and poor quality water, he added.
The official noted that the salinity of water resources in the arid province is on the rise due to overextraction from diminishing ground aquifers, taking a heavy toll on the agro sector.
The Purchasing Managers' Index for the industrial sector of Iran has dropped for the third consecutive month and broken below the threshold mark (50), latest data released by the Statistics and Economic Analysis Center of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture show.
In the current fiscal year’s fifth month (July 23-Aug. 22), PMI for the industrial sector settled at 48.45 from 53.93 in the preceding month (June 22-July 22), indicating a 10.16% fall.
Locally known by its Farsi acronym Shamekh, PMI is an indicator of the economic health of manufacturing and services sectors. It provides information about current business conditions to companies’ decision-makers, analysts and purchasing managers.
Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union traded $1.32 billion worth of goods (excluding crude oil) during the first five months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Aug. 22), registering a 30% increase compared with the corresponding period of last year, according to the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
“Iran’s export reached $522.14 million, indicating a 15% year-on-year rise while imports hit $804.25 million, showing a 43% rise,” Alireza Moqaddesi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Russia was Iran’s biggest export destination among EEU member states during the period with $291.23 million worth of imports, followed by Armenia with $144.1 million, Kazakhstan with $61.2 million, Kyrgyzstan with $18.42 million and Belarus with $7.18 million.
Tehran stocks opened Sunday again under heavy sell-side pressure in almost all categories.
The main index of Tehran Stock Exchange, TEDPIX, lost 11,180.85 points or 0.80% to end at 1,377,917.45.
Retail trade dropped 5% on the session before to reach 24.05 trillion rials ($77 million).
Since the beginning of the calendar year in late March banks and credit institutions gave 790 trillion rials ($2.5 billion) loans to encourage youth marriage and childbirth.
Mostafa Qamari-Vafa, head of the Central Bank of Iran public relations department said Sunday the money was given to 860,000 people in a little less than six months.
“Banks gave 342,000 loans worth 130 trillion rials [$420 million] to promote childbirth,” he wrote in a note on his social media account.
Listed companies paid 26 trillion rials ($80 million) in dividend to shareholders since the beginning of current fiscal year in March.
According to data released by the Central Securities depository of Iran (CSDI), the capital market clearing house, the payment was for dividends pending over the past years due to bureaucratic and procedural issues.
The clearing house said dividends were paid to 10.22 million shareholders.
Performance of the domestic payment network indicates 9% growth in the number of unused or infrequently used POS terminals in the month to August 22.
POS terminals are popular digital payment tools in Iran. However, the last monthly report published by Shaparak company shows that not all devices are regularly used by retailers. As per the report, almost 10.47% of the total POS devices processed less than 60 transactions in two months.
The total number of less-used POS terminals grew by 9.7% during the period compared to the month before. The e-network company said 8.1 million POS terminals were used across the country in the month.
An Iranian knowledge-based company has produced surgical blades that only a few companies are selling worldwide because of the specialized technology involved.
“The production of surgical blades, despite their simple appearance, requires a complex technological process. For the production of these surgical blades, four processes are required, one of which is the steel heating process,” Shahriar Homayoun Farmanesh, the CEO of Mathlab Electronic Paydar Company, was quoted as saying by the news portal of Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology.
“Usually, the highest accuracy that Computer Numerical Control machines have is one-hundredth of a millimeter, while the tip of surgical blades is 60 nanometers, for which an electronic microscope must be used to measure its size.”
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