A vessel shall not be manufactured inside the country at any expense. Further, customers cannot be coerced or threatened to purchase domestic-made maritime equipment, and history shows that such a coerced or threatened purchase will not last for long because customers need to gain satisfaction with the purchased item.
“Removal of international sanctions helps financial resources to be injected into maritime organs and private sector and this may encourage companies and organs to renew their lines and purchase new ships and vessels. If no proper supervision of this process is exerted by the government; however, domestic ship construction will for sure have an insignificant share of such financial resources” stated by the SYRAF CEO to MANA reporter.
Adding that ship construction could not take any forward step for improvement during the years of international sanctions, Hassan Ebrahimpour Ziaei declared, “Anyway, foreign ship manufacturers are preferable over current active companies of Iran in terms of technology, construction process, finalized cost and product quality, and their entrance into Iran market will reveal no more the difference between domestic ship manufacturers and the foreign ones.”
“Under current conditions, any encouragement of maritime organs to purchase domestic-made equipment will be distraught with serious concerns since pre- and post-sanctions quality of products reveals no significant difference” Ziaei added.
“We have to have something to offer in terms of product quality and construction pace” he continued “domestic ship construction needs to determine its product package to compete with foreign rivals. For these purposes, lighter and early-return vessels can be set as target. Domestic ship construction can be performed in cooperation with foreign ship manufacturers in such a way that makes technology transfer realized as well.”
“We expect the government to procure competent ship manufacturers which are capable of implementing projects with funds, facilities and construction orders” this private sector activist suggested and went on, “This, to be organized, needs a supervision mechanism which is best operated by a specialized department in the government.”
Ziaei pointed to the inappropriateness of the structure of maritime associations, “It should be examined how successful domestic maritime equipment guild and manufacturers have been in reflecting the voice of ship producers” he continued “The Maritime Industries Superior Council and the Maritime Industries Support Fund have not been perfectly activated yet because they are not accepted by the government as an independent entity which has to be accountable to the government. Further, no feedback has been received from these bodies so far.”
“There are no ship producers but ship manufacturers in Iran” the SYRAF CEO continued “Manufacturers manufacture at any cost while producers pay a great deal of attention to competition, economic efficiency, production time and controlled processes.”
He provided an example, “Landing crafts are also built in Iran but it is not known whether these crafts are competitive in terms of quality, finalized price and construction time. Everybody provides their specific justifications while the question which remains unanswered is whether Iranian landing crafts are comparable to Singapore-made crafts.”
Having referred to the difficulties faced by state and private sectors active in ship construction and to the dissatisfaction of vessel owners, Ziaei added, “The military section of the maritime industry is the only section which has seen advancement to itself. The operational issue has always been more important.”
“Ship construction does not face merely financial problems” he continued by posing a supporting question “Did we have on-time and competitive delivery when the ship construction had been activated by managed funds? If choices had been made properly, we would for sure have acted more efficiently” He continued, “There are many graduates in the major of ship construction whose role in this industry is unfortunately insignificant.”
We Don’t Need to Manufacture Everything inside the Country
Ziaei expressed, “We are not expected to manufacture everything inside the country but to manufacture things we are able to manufacture them competitively. It is time to face the fact that products cannot be sold by coercion. Such a sale will for sure be concomitant with future problems.”
This private sector producer went on, “In today’s world, the thing called ‘national production’ can no longer be found. The world’s market has been internationalized and since there are competitive, appropriate goods all around the world, consumers cannot be forced to buy expensive, low quality products.”
“The production mechanism should be made economic and ship construction enterprises should be made commercial; however, there is no process for production of vessels in the country and taxation is done with no clear rules” he further stated.
Ziaei revealed his belief that, “The industry should come to the understanding that it needs to take measures to become meritorious and this is a must.”
Emphasizing that “Domestic maritime industries shall not be imposed to customers,” Ziaei explained, “As the part of private sector, we started to take our steps toward advancement the time we set ourselves free of any support and accepted that customers shall be convinced to come to the decision to choose us. Support means to provide the infrastructure required to proceed and improve product quality, but not to provide money and sell products under duress.”
He finally emphasized that, “Any support by the government should be in the form of creating necessary infrastructure for those active in the ship construction field, taking their plans and monitoring them so that they grow bigger, attract more customers and compete in the international market.”
