The domestic shipbuilding industry will be granted a 12 year loan –first two years interest-free the rest at a rate of 3%– from Iran’s currency reserves. During the opening ceremony of the seafaring industry’s Fourth National Congress the Minister for Industries and Mines, Esshaq Jahangiri, promised as many concessions as possible to boost the shipbuilding sector. He expressed the ministry’s readiness to cooperate with credible and renowned foreign companies for the building of ships to satisfy the domestic market demand and to achieve exports.

The ability of domestic shipbuilders to construct and repair vessels is adequate and there are contracts with domestic shipbuilders to build a variety of watercrafts –worth some $2 billion. There is also a Seafaring Industry Expansion Bill before Parliament, which seeks to provide the industry with the investment, and credit it needs to prosper.

Jahangiri declared that our shipbuilders should be capable of building 300,000 ton ships, the private sector also needs to become more actively involved, state-of-the-art technology must find their place in the industry as well as the training of an expert workforce with the cooperation of foreigners, which must be accepted as an indispensable feature of the industry. He continued to say that Iran’s seafaring industry enjoys an advantageous position and a country whose coastline stretches over 2,700 kilometers cannot be indifferent to its seafaring industry.

It is the market that indicates the need for the expansion of an industrial field and Iran’s regional markets have a very good relationship with the seafaring industry. An example of this is the transportation of oil through the Strait of Hormoz, which provides a market –worth many millions of dollars– for the repair and reconstruction of the passing ships. With the Ministry of Oil’s plan to develop and expand the South Pars gas fields the demand from the seafaring industry will rise billions of dollars high, a fact shipbuilders should keep in mind.

Likewise in the field of transportation many countries must pass through Iran’s routes and this transition has increased over recent years and this too creates a market for our industry. Iran has 435 ships, 51% of which are over 20 years old and for environmental reasons should stop being used and must be replaced with new ships. There are also more than 5,600 cargo ships and fishing boats moving about in Iran’s southern ports that must be replaced by 250 ton steel ships.

However, the question remains, why has shipbuilding never flourished in Iran, despite the demand for and the capacity of the seafaring industry? Why are officials so sensitive and precise towards some industries –such as the auto industry– but so indifferent to other important industries such as shipbuilding, in which Iran enjoys many advantages and has immense potential? And this is while some countries have a set up a shipbuilding industry just to meet Iran’s orders.