04
July 4, 2009
Cement Exports
Iran has exported 7,000 tons of cement to Iraq in the current year, managing director of Hormuzgan Cement Company, Mohammad Rabbani, said.
Domestic Economy
Asia Trade Rise Remarkable
During the last five years, Asian countries’ exports to Iran have increased five fold reaching $17 billion in 2008, International Monetary Fund said. In a report on Iran’s foreign trade, IMF announced that Iran’s import from the Asian countries has followed a rising process since 2000. While the Asian countries had exported only $2 billion of products to Iran, the figure later jumped remarkably. It reached $3.2 billion in 2003 and $17 billion in 2008, the report added.
Oil Prices Slide
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il prices tumbled to their lowest level in a month on Thursday following the release of woeful job numbers in Europe and the US. Benchmark crude for August delivery fell $2.58, nearly 4 percent, to settle at $66.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, AP wrote. Crude hit an eight-month high in midday trading Tuesday, but prices have fallen at the close for five straight days now. Nymex is closed Friday for the July Fourth holiday.
1st Iranian Power Plant in Syria
Iran will set up the first power plant in Syria with totally indigenous knowledge. Announcing this, director of Iran’s Power Plant Projects Management Company (MAPNA) Morteza Ganjehzadegan said the 450-megawat power plant in Teshrin, southeast Damascus, is the first Iranian project in the field. It will be implemented by the company’s engineers, he added. Given the excellent ties between the two countries and cooperation of the Syrian energy ministry, the first gas unit of the project will be completed within six months, he told Iribnews.ir. According to him, MAPNA’s performance has made the Syrian officials optimistic about the Iranian companies. MAPNA includes 30 Iranian companies involved in building the main equipment of power plants. It is the only company in the Middle East which implements the entirety of the projects. The project will help promote economic ties, Ganjehzadegan concluded. Meanwhile, Iran and Syria reached agreement on speeding up the implementation of joint projects in different fields. In a meeting held between Iran’s Minister of Housing and Urban Development Mohammad Saeedikia and Syrian Economy and Trade Minister Amer Husni Lutfi, the two officials called for the expansion of bilateral economic cooperation, IRNA reported. The two sides also underlined the need for the finalization of the mutual agreement in the near future. Tehran and Damascus enjoy strengthened relations and the Iranian companies have been largely investing in Syria’s various technical projects.
NIOC to Expand Ties With Gazprom, Tatneft
Iran aims to develop 20 further offshore and onshore oil and gas fields under its latest five-year plan, National Iranian Oil Company’s oil and gas manager, Bahman Soroushi, said. Addressing a conference in Moscow, Soroushi said some of these projects would be made available to foreign contractors, Moj news agency wrote. “Russia has good potential for activities in Iran’s oil and gas sector,” he said, adding that National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) was interested in cooperating with Gazprom and Tatneft, especially in technology and oil production. Also, Abdulmohammad Delparish, corporate planning director of the National Iranian Drilling Company, said his company had a preliminary agreement with Turkey’s TPAO to develop phases 22, 23, and 25 of the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf. Delparish said delineation drilling could start later in 2009. NIOC has been in negotiations with TPAO over the past two years, in a program that could lead to Turkish companies investing $12 billion in the three phases. In February, National Iranian Gas Exports Company and Turkish officials agreed to establish a joint company to transport up to 35 bcm/year to Europe via a pipeline with supplies delivered at the border point of Bazargan.
Unemployment Rate Up On Thursday, a US Labor Department report showed the economy lost a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June. The unemployment rate climbed to 9.5 percent from 9.4 percent in May, underscoring concerns about the pace of economic recovery. Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost a net total of 6.5 million jobs. That has destroyed demand for energy on numerous levels. Employees who have lost jobs or are in fear of losing jobs are driving less and buying fewer goods, many of them petroleum based. Factories also have curbed production and are using less natural gas and electricity. US stores of natural gas continue to grow as energy demand has weakened. The government reported that the nation’s surplus grew more than expected last week, and it’s now 21 percent above the five-year average. The job numbers in the US came on the heels of an awful employment picture in Europe. Unemployment in the 16 countries that use the euro spiked to a ten-year high in May. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the euro zone in May stood at 9.5 percent. After rising 41 percent in the second quarter, which ended Tuesday, energy prices are now showing signs of a retreat. Oil prices have doubled since March, when the Fed committed $1.2
Benchmark crude for August delivery fell $2.58, nearly 4 percent, to settle at $66.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
trillion dollars to prop up the banking industry. Investors poured money into commodities like oil as a hedge against inflation, and foreign traders found they had more buying power as the dollar weakened. How long the weak dollar can support energy prices, if demand is still weak, remains to be seen. But energy prices are still a relative bargain and if there is any benefit from the awful economy, it can be found at the pump. Pump prices are 10.4 cents more per gallon than a month ago. At this time last year, gasoline cost $4.09 per gallon.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline for August delivery fell 6.82 cents to settle at $1.7908 a gallon and heating oil lost 6.41 cents to settle at $1.7016 a gallon. Natural gas for August delivery dropped 18 cents to settle at $3.615 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent prices dropped $2.14 to settle at $66.66 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Negative Outlook Meanwhile, rating agency Moody’s said its outlook for the global integrated oil industry was negative as the economic recovery in 2010 was expected to be “slow and painful,”
crimping worldwide oil and gas demand when inventories were near record highs, AFP wrote. Overall, gross cash flow for the integrated oil companies will fall about 40 percent to $180 billion in 2009 and will remain at lower levels in 2010, amid declining prices for oil and gas, Moody’s said. “The negative outlook reflects our view that prices for crude oil and natural gas could turn lower, squeezing margins and causing cash flow for integrated oil companies to fall by more than a third in the year ahead,” said Moody’s senior vice president Thomas Coleman.
Cooperatives Vital
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon encouraged governments and civil society everywhere to recognize the effectiveness of cooperatives and engage with them as vital partners for global recovery and achieving development goals. According to a press release issued by the UN Information Center (UNIC) in Tehran, the UN secretary-general made the remarks in his message issued on the occasion of International Day of Cooperatives, 4 July 2009. The full text of his message reads: “The first cooperatives were born more than 200 years ago when rural entrepreneurs and farmers decided to pool resources and help one another to overcome their limited access to commercial opportunities. Subsequently, retail cooperatives emerged to help poor households escape the debt trap and provide access to better quality goods and services. Cooperatives have since developed in many areas, from manufacturing to financial services, spurred by the desire for a more equitable way of working and doing business. At a time of global economic distress, this history deserves to be more widely known. The theme of create job opportunities and improve working conditions. The economic model of cooperatives is based not on charity but on self-help and reciprocity. In countries hit by the financial crisis, the cooperative bank and credit union sector expanded lending when other financial institutions had to cut back, easing the impact of the credit freeze on the most vulnerable. This highlights the importance of strong alternative business models and institutional diversity for the resilience of the financial system. “Cooperatives deserve greater support. I urge governments to adopt policies that support the establishment and development of cooperatives. Consumers can help by buying food produced by smallholder cooperatives.” “In the face of the current economic crisis, communities around the world are rediscovering the critical necessity to work for the common good. On this occasion, I encourage governments and civil society everywhere to recognize the effectiveness of cooperatives and engage with them as vital partners for global recovery and achieving development goals.”
Afghan Traders Hold Joint Meeting
Iranian and Afghan traders stressed on the expansion of trade and investment and removing the current obstacles on Thursday in a joint meeting. In the meeting which was held in Tehran, Mohammad Nahavandian, head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, referred to Afghanistan’s need to Iranian goods and investment in different fields, adding, “The Iranian and Afghan traders should boost both bilateral and regional cooperation,” Iribnews.ir wrote. He said it is necessary to expand common Chamber of Commerce, adding the chambers of commerce are necessary for the expansion of trade. Nahavandian underlined investment in different fields for bolstering the trade and commercial ties. Afghanistan Commerce Minister Wahidullah Shahrani, for his part, said President Hamid Karzai believes in high quality of Iranian goods and is interested in the presence of Iranian traders in the country. “We welcome Iranian investors and we are ready to cooperate with them in all fields.” Shahrani referred to the position of Chabahar Free Trade Zone, saying, “The region has a special importance for Afghanistan because of its role in the transit of goods.” He also called for expansion of Herat-Mazar-e Sharif and Kabul-Qandahar railroads as northern and southern corridors respectively.
this year’s observance of the International Day of Cooperatives--”Driving Global Recovery through Cooperatives”--highlights the value of cooperative enterprise. Cooperatives can strengthen the resilience of the vulnerable. They can help to establish more balanced markets for small farmers and give small entrepreneurs access to financial services. They can
Telecom Operators Lose $15m
The 20-day suspension of text messages in Iran has cost telecom operators nearly $15 million in damages, a lawmaker said. Text messaging was suspended on the eve of the June 12 presidential election, Mostafa Kavakebian added, Presstv wrote. The loss caused some concerns for operators but prompted one of the foreign partners--South Africa’s MTN Group--to issue a statement, denying a report that it would lose a month of its revenues from Iran. The MTN Group has a 49-percent share in MTN Irancell. The joint venture, which came into effect in late 2006, is currently the second operator in Iran. Zain License Stripped Kuwaiti Mobile Telecommunications Co. (Zain) has reportedly landed in trouble in Iran as the government says the company failed to “fulfill its obligations”. Poul newspaper quoted Iranian Telecommunication Minister Mohammad Soleimani as saying another tender would be held to find a new partner for the development of the much-delayed project. The report Etisalat, which had won the tender in January, after the UAE operator failed “to give necessary guarantees and license fees on time”. Zain, a consortium of two Iranian companies and Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co., was the runner-up in the original bidding for the mobile license in December last year, which saw the concession awarded to Etisalat for $399 million. The current telecom operators in Iran are the state-owned Iran Telecommunication Company (TCI) and Irancell, which is 49 percent owned by South Africa’s MTN Group.
gave no further details. In May, Iran replaced Zain with the Emirati Telecommunications Corp.,