Lifting of sanctions could spark growth in Iranian plastics

The Iranian plastics industry is expected to have a huge growth spurt following the lifting of sanctions in January 2016.

Iran boasts large automotive, construction, and rigid packaging markets, as well as significant sectors for other industry segments, and this, coupled with improving GDP growth, means the business opportunities for plastics processing is substantial.

Iran has the second-highest polymer demand in the region, at just over three million tonnes, and the second largest market for engineering thermoplastics, which are both expect to grow following the lifting of the economic sanctions.

Despite only consuming two per cent of polymer demand in the country, the automotive sector accounts for 10 per cent of GDP.

Iran manufactured approximately one million vehicles in 2015, and with further anticipated growth comes the potential expansion of the supporting plastics industry.

The positive forecast also carries over to the packaging sector, where rigid packaging contributes to just under a fifth of all polymer demand in Iran.

Consumer packaging has also increased capacity in response to a growing trend towards organised retailing and supermarket shopping, whereas industrial packaging is also set to increase in response to improving logistics to serve the retailing industry and the growth in polymer manufacturing.

Despite the current potential of the Iranian plastics industry, it is a huge challenge for investors outside the company to discover opportunities, as information on major players in the industry is not readily available.

To combat this, AMI has released the Database of Plastics Processing in Iran, providing information on over 300 different processing sites.