The Ashes of an Economic Giant

With the burning and collapse of the Plasco building, a part of Iran's economy has turned to ashes. According to initial studies and investigations, the Plasco building alone housed 16% of the total employment in Iran's clothing industry, and it is said that the volume of clothing production in the workshops of the Plasco building constituted about 10% of the total production in this sector. In this report, we have examined the economic dimensions of the destruction of Iran's clothing giant and the numbers and figures of this disaster. The 17-story building, which came under the ownership of the Foundation of the Oppressed after the 1979 Revolution, is estimated to have had over 500 commercial and production units that paid more than 7 billion tomans in rent to the Foundation each month. The immediate consequences of this disaster include the unemployment of about 4,000 workers active in the economic units of the Plasco building and the loss of capital of these units. The destruction of these production and commercial units is seen by some market observers as a sign of rising clothing prices in the coming months, especially with the traditional increase in demand for new clothing as the New Year approaches.