Iran close to awarding tire plant project

Tehran – Iran is in the final stage of talks to award a contract for a greenfield 500,000-tonne/year tire plant to a local contractor, ERJ has learnt.

Iran’s Industrial Development and Renovation Organisation (IDRO) has decided to award the Arya Hamoon Tire project to semi-state-owned EPC contractor Sabir, a source told ERJ.

Located at the Pakistan-bordering Sistan-Baluchestan province, the plant will be set up in Ramshar Industrial Zone in an area of 50 hectares, and is expected to create 1,400 jobs once completed.

Iran broke ground on the project in March, and head of IDRO industrial operations Reza Allahyari told ERJ at the time that 19 companies had bought tender documents to take part in the bidding.

However, according to the ERJ source, only two companies took part in the bidding and both were Iranian.

Sabir had a considerably lower bid but IDRO is still negotiating with them to lower their offer, he added.

The project proposal by Sabir also includes technology provided by China’s Sailun Tyre and machinery provided by Mesnac.

Arya Hamoon is one of the four greenfield tire plant projects pursued by the Iranian government and led by IDRO.

The plant will produce 25 kilotonne per annum (ktpa) of passenger car and light truck tires and 25 kpta of heavy commercial vehicle tires.

Unlike the other three projects, where in IDRO has a 19-percent share in the project partnering with the private sector, this project is completely owned by IDRO, mainly due to lack of interest from local investors.