Top Venue for Iran, Int’l Marine Players to Team Up

The first edition of IRANIMEX, powered by Europort was held last month on Iran’s Kish Island.

The exhibition hosted 300 exhibitors from 22 countries who showcased their products and services to over 9,000 visitors from all walks of the maritime life and government.

Exhibitors praised the opportunities in the Iranian maritime and offshore market and the many promising contacts made during the event, according to the online daily newspaper Hellenic Shipping News.

For many international exhibitors, IRANIMEX 2016 was the first chance to get in contact with the Iranian maritime and offshore industry and response was often above expectations.

Andreas Albert, managing owner of Albert GmbH/Germany said: “We exhibited at IRANIMEX for the first time and it was a great forum for Albert GmbH to present its global service in the marine-, offshore- and trade market. The feedback greatly exceeded our expectations. We believe that IRANIMEX is one of the best gates to understand the Iranian market’s updated demands and to meet many key players in one place. Due to this positive experience we are looking forward to the next edition of IRANIMEX.”

  VIP Officials

During the official inaugural ceremony held on October 18 in the Kish International Convention Center, a large delegation of officials was present together with 400 national and international invitees.

Among the officials were Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran; Amir Habibollah Sayyari, commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy; Ali Asghar Mounesan, CEO of Kish Free Zone Organization; Mohammad Saeed Seif, secretary of Marine Initiative Technology Council of Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology; Mohammad Saeednejad, deputy minister and managing director of Ports and Maritime Organization; and Amir Rastegari, the head of Iran Marine Industries Organization.

  Visitors With Clear Investment Focus

More than 9,000 visitors from 23 countries attended IRANIMEX 2016. A majority of them came from Iran’s most important maritime and governmental regions like Tehran, Bandar Abbas and Bushehr.

A large concentration of overseas visitors originated from Middle East and Asia.

Visitors mainly represented technical departments (33%) and management boards (22%) of maritime and offshore related companies. Sixty-three percent of all visitors were directly involved in the decision making process for purchase and investments.

Most of the visitors indicated that their main goals were to establish relations with new suppliers and to gather information about specific products and services.

Exhibitors often experienced a clear focus from these visitors who demonstrated specific technology requirements.

“IRANIMEX has been very successful for us. There was a high turnout in our stand, giving us the opportunity to speak to so many people. This was a valuable chance to get to know more about this growing market,” said Hidde Nooteboom, sales manager Middle East for Damen Shipyards.

  Exponential International Growth

This was the 18th edition of IRANIMEX. Previous editions were mainly held at the national level.

In 2016, IRANIMEX signed an exclusive cooperation agreement with Europort, one of the world’s largest maritime exhibitions.

By combining the blueprint of IRANIMEX and the international expertise provided by Europort, the two organizations joined forces and from 2016 onwards, the exhibition has been rebranded as “IRANIMEX, powered by Europort”.

This rebranding and lifting of sanctions have resulted in an exponential growth of international exhibitors from 10 to 114. As a result, the exhibition size has grown by almost 30% covering an area of 21,000 square meters.

Peyman Masoudzadeh, secretary of the Iranian Association of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, underlined that IRANIMEX, powered by Europort marks Iran’s largest maritime event and will turn into the most significant maritime exhibition in the region by taking advantage of post-JCPOA opportunities.

Bas Eerden, manager of Product and Marketing Department at Alphatron Marine, added: “When Europort asked us to participate in IRANIMEX, we did not have to think twice. Iran is definitely a future growth market with high potential for our sector. The exhibition has provided us with many interesting leads and we met potential partners with whom we could make future business deals. We will definitely be back in the next IRANIMEX in 2017.”

Alongside the exhibition, the two-day marine industries conference “MICIRAN” took place. The conference was held with the cooperation of Iranian marine universities and organizations.

During this conference, researchers, scientists and practitioners from all over the world exchanged information and new ideas, and discussed the future direction and priorities in the areas of naval architecture, marine engineering and related topics.

The next edition of IRANIMEX, powered by Europort will be held on December 12-14, 2017, also on Kish Island that is an international free zone for which no visa is required and can be reached in just a 30-minute flight from Dubai.