Deputy Minister of Industry: 14,000 Factories Have Closed in Iran

Mohammad Ali Seyed Abreshimi, the Deputy Minister of Industry in Iran, reports the cessation of operations at 14,000 industrial units in Iran. According to a report on Tuesday, December 4, by ISNA news agency, he explained that the operations of this number of industrial units have been halted over the past 15 years, with most closures occurring between 2005 and 2013. In a conversation with Khabar Online on the same day, the Deputy Minister added, 'Additionally, 22,000 industrial units are operating at less than 50% capacity, and 24,000 units are continuing their operations at 50 to 70% capacity.' He also referred to the ownership of industrial units by banks, stating, 'A total of 81,000 industrial units are active in industrial parks. Of this total, 100 industrial units have been seized due to issues such as non-payment of debts by banks. Furthermore, 70% of the industrial units that have gone bankrupt or ceased operations reached this status between 2005 and 2013.' He stated, 'Our research shows that 70% of the issues causing factory closures relate to liquidity supply. Additionally, some of these industries have shut down due to market sales problems and disputes with partners.' Mr. Seyed Abreshimi had also spoken about factory closures on May 10 of this year, stating that during Hassan Rouhani's administration, 5,400 production units in Iran went bankrupt or closed from 2006 to 2013. He emphasized that 70% of Iran's production units have faced 'many problems' since the onset of economic sanctions, leading to their closure. Previously, in Esfand 1391, Alireza Mohajoub, the Secretary-General of the Workers' House, announced that according to official statistics, 100,000 workers had been laid off from over 1,000 production units, and in 2012, eight out of ten production units were in a critical situation. Additionally, according to Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the spokesman for Hassan Rouhani's government, the employment rate in the industrial sector in 2012 had reached minus 36%, and out of 841 production units in industrial parks across Iran, only 192 units were operational, while 629 units had closed. Many production units that managed to survive are operating at around 40% capacity. The dire situation of bankruptcy and factory closures in Iran comes as the Deputy Minister of Labor announced this week that Iran needs to create 800,000 to 900,000 new jobs annually, stating that achieving this number of jobs requires the production growth rate in Iran to reach 7%. The Statistical Center of Iran recently reported a single-digit unemployment rate in the country in the summer of 2014, with this index decreasing to 9.5%, but IRIB and some Iranian media have expressed doubts about the accuracy of this data.