How was it like to start out when you first came back to Iran?

I had to build right from scratch. Sometimes it is natural to start from the beginning, but in my case there was actually no beginning since a war was imposed on Iran shortly after the 1979 Revolution. I didn’t let that waste my time. The eight years of Iran-Iraq war was an opportunity for me to further study my country, its geography and culture. Meanwhile, I did some engineering and designing work. My diverse efforts led to the establishment of a construction company called Pars Armineh Eng. after the war.

Please elaborate on Pars Armineh Eng., its fields of activity and future plans.

It is an engineering and construction company formed by me and two of my brothers who are both civil engineers. From A to Z, Pars Armineh handles every part of the project itself. Having worked on several projects so far, Pars Armineh is today mainly working with the Iranian petrochemical industry. Owing to its innovative projects and bright record, I am pleased to state that Pars Armineh enjoys a fine resume. The company intends to continue giving construction and engineering services to plants, with a focus on petrochemical plants in the Mahshahr area. This means that Pars Armineh will be producing a variety of construction materials and prefabricated parts. In the long term, Pars Armineh also aims to build its own factory for the production of petrochemicals, chemicals and plastics.

What are the major projects of Pars Armineh? Where does the company stand among the country’s engineering and construction companies?

Our company is currently involved in Part A construction phase of Shahid Tondguyan petrochemical project. It is building almost all of the concrete and steel structures.
Arak, Razi and Amir Kabir are some of the other petrochemical sites where Pars Armineh is in charge of engineering and construction operations.
To encourage investment plus industrial and manufacturing operations by foreign companies and the Iranian private sector a zone has been established known as the Petrochemical Special Economic Zone (Petzone) in the southern Iranian port of Mahshahr. Pars Armineh was one of the first companies to buy a 20,000-sq.m piece of land in the Petzone to build a factory for producing industrial concrete.
The factory is now conducting operations to manufacture reinforced concrete piles. Mahshahr is located by the Persian Gulf and one has to develop the land and strengthen the foundation on the shores upon which various plants could be built. Industrial concrete and reinforced concrete piles manufactured by Pars Armineh Factory will be used to serve this purpose. Therefore, our company is developing quite an expertise in this business.
There is an Association of Engineering & Technical Companies with a few hundred of membership. These companies can be divided into a few categories in terms of expertise. I believe Pars Armineh is in top position when it comes to petrochemical industry.

Will you brief us on the most outstanding projects in Pars Armineh record?

Our company is especially proud of its performance in a project called “Butachlor”. It is made of two plants (ACBC & CAC) to produce pesticides. The plant was first supposed to be constructed in Zanjan, but due to a number of reasons, it was later relocated to Arak. It is erected next to the huge petrochemical plant of Arak which consists of several factories constructed mainly by an Italian company.
Foundation, piles and pile caps are all the civil operations involved in most other petrochemical plants. But Butachlor is one of the few plants in the area that houses a giant structure. However, the main civil construction operations in Butachlor Plant were performed by Pars Armineh.
ACBC is 10,000 sq.m and CAC about 4,000 sq.m. Made of reinforced concrete, each of them stands around 6 meters high with 7 meters of column-to-column span. Extra protection and so many safety factors had to be applied given the fact that poison flows in the plant. It had to minimize the leakage threat to zero by withstanding unexpected events like earthquakes. Another source of pride is that we completed the job at a much lower cost than foreign contractors would have.
I can also refer to Pars Armineh-Tondguyan contract which is worth about Rls. 30 billion for nine months. This is an attractive contract as far as the implementation duration and the level of operations are concerned.

How is the company approaching the topic of international partnership?

Construction materials and prefabricated parts produced by Pars Armineh plant can be readily exported via the Persian Gulf. As I mentioned, we are planning to build a factory to manufacture petrochemical by-products and welcome a foreign partner, preferably from Europe or Canada, for this purpose. Our partner can trust that Pars Armineh possesses the expertise, the experience and the right location for the joint project. Here, it is worth mentioning that petrochemical, chemical and plastic products will be produced at a much lower price as compared to most other countries. In addition, Pars Armineh is fully prepared to extend expert engineering services especially to the Persian Gulf states.

Export of technical and engineering services is a concept that many are trying to promote these days as part of the state policies for promotion of non-oil exports. How competent and how prepared do you see Iranian companies for this?

There has been much talk about the export of technical and engineering services among the statesmen. Many Iranian companies, including Pars Armineh, are capable and willing to step outside, conduct operations, demonstrate their capabilities and bring in revenues.
Technically, we don’t have the slightest problem. Sharp engineers, up-to-date engineering knowledge, financial strength; all these are available in Iranian companies. Some state-run companies have had examples of overseas operations. However, for private companies, problems exist somewhere else. You have to be able to go out and find jobs, be competitive enough to get the job, enjoy a fine reputation and trust in the destination country, export your machinery, take your personnel, get support from banks, etc. Another important requirement is the state support. There is a limit to the marketing job that private companies can perform. Sometimes they don’t have the right connections. It is up to the overseas bureaus of our government to spot the jobs, establish links, support companies and provide jobs for our increasing engineers. There is also the problem of poor publicity. For example, some of the Persian Gulf states know how to import sand and cement from Iran but they don’t know who to refer to for technical and engineering services.
Such problems have made the domestic market to be excessively tight and competitive. Whenever there is a tender, engineering companies grab it by offering very low prices. There is not much profitability left in the domestic projects anymore. Under the present circumstances, Pars Armineh has been fortunate never to be left without a job.