| Look, they're making shoes for the mullahs! |
Iran's Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) is planning to implement two major cement projects in Syria and Venezuela, said a senior IDRO official on Wednesday. Abbas Shoufi, the organization's director for cement affairs, put the production capacity of each of these projects at 1 mln tons per annum. He told ILNA that IDRO will invest $197 mln in the Homam project in Syria and $200 mln in the Venezuelan project. The official further noted that the organization has received offers from Tunisia, Afghanistan and Iraq for cooperation in the sector, stressing that IDRO affiliates produce five million tons of cement per annum. Shoufi predicted that state cement companies will offer their shares on the stock market by late March. Cement industry has made remarkable progress in the past one and a half years given the state financial support. Some 38 factories nationwide have produced 26.7 mln tons of cement since March 2004, registering an eight-percent increase against the figure for the corresponding period the previous year. Cement production is expected to reach 31.5 mln tons by March, when production capacity will also hit 32.5 mln tons. Iran accounts for some 1.7% of the total world cement production. |