More than 1,100 decision-makers of the Iranian textile und carpet industry, as well as 36 leading German textile machinery and accessories manufacturers participated in the VDMA textile machinery conference that took place from 21-22 April in Tehran.

In the light of this high number of participants and the intensity of the discussions regarding concrete intentions for investment, this has been the most successful conference of the VDMA Textile Machinery Association for more than 10 years, organisers report.

German textile machinery

In 2014 already, the German textile machinery exports to Iran increased to EUR 37 million. Nevertheless competition became stronger over recent years, such as from China. “We now see the chance to regain lost market shares,” explained Thomas Waldmann, Managing Director of the VDMA.

“The longer customers are not in a position to buy German machinery due to the punishment, the more new business becomes challenging. For this reason we took the informed decision in 2014 to hold the symposium in Iran, despite the political uncertainty. Our expectations have been greatly exceeded.”

Excellent timing

The excellent timing and the fact that the symposium has been the first German event of this magnitude in Iran for more than 10 years, have also contributed to the huge response, the association reports.

The strong demand of the visitors already became apparent in the run-up of the event. “For the first time we have been forced to close general registration a good month before the conference for reasons of capacity and safety,” commented Boris Abadjieff, Head of Exhibitions and Marketing of Textile Machinery Association.

This great feedback also shows the enormous backlog in investments, the thirst of knowledge of the Iranian textile and carpet manufacturers, and the great reputation of German technology in Iran, organisers believe.

Promoting textile machinery export

During the opening of the conference Golnar Nasrollahi, General Manager of Textile & Garment Department, Ministry of Industry, underlined the importance of the after sales service of German machinery manufacturers in Iran and the ambitious target of the government to promote the export of the textile industry, which today is strongly concentrated on the domestic market.

The Iranian textile, carpet and apparel industry employs about 1 million people and exports at present textiles and carpets worth US 1 billion per year. This sum shall increase to US 2 billion in the forthcoming years.

The German Ambassador, Michael von Ungern-Sternberg, and the Chairperson of the VDMA Textile Machinery Association and Managing Associate of Brückner Trockentechnik, Regina Brückner, also participated in the opening ceremony.

Industry outlook

Perspectives for the German textile machinery manufacturers are good. Iranian investments mainly focussed on spinning technology in the past, but both customers and the Ministry of Industry have understood that the value of the final textile products can be increased considerably.

After the event, many of the attending company representatives see a clearly higher potential in Iran than before. Many companies, however, will remain busy to find a solution for handling payment flows.

Even the bankers themselves are extremely reserved with handling simple transfers from Iran. Handling letters of credits remains nearly impossible. VDMA (German Engineering Federation) therefore requests that the banks come back to the legal Iran business in order to support the medium-sized companies.

www.vdma.org