Industry
Tehran is the largest market for domestic agricultural and manufactured products, which are shipped to the nearest town and thence to Tehran and the provincial capitals by air, truck, rail, camel, mule, and donkey. Since craft production is localized, each city has created a market for its products in the capital and other major cities. Major manufacturing industries, which have transformed large parts of Iran since 1954, are scattered throughout the country, and their products are distributed nationwide. Industrial development, which began in earnest in the mid-1950s, has transformed parts of the country.
Iran now produces a wide range of manufactured commodities, such as automobiles, electric appliances, telecommunications equipment, industrial machinery, paper, rubber products, steel, food products, wood and leather products, textiles, and pharmaceuticals. textile mills are centered in Isfahan and along the Caspian coast. Iran is known throughout the world for its hand-woven carpets. The traditional craft of making these Persian rugs contributes substantially to rural incomes and is one of Iran’s most important export industries. until the early 1950s, the construction industry was limited largely to small domestic companies.
Increased income from oil and gas and the availability of easy credit, however, triggered a subsequent building boom that attracted major international construction firms to Iran. The construction industry had revived somewhat by the mid-1980s, but housing shortages have remained a serious problem, especially in the large urban centers. The government makes loans and credits available to industrial and agricultural projects, primarily through banks. Iran’s long-term objectives since the 1979 revolution has been economic independence, full employment, and a comfortable standard of living for its citizens.
After the end of hostilities with Iraq in 1988, the government tried to develop the country’s communication, transportation, manufacturing, energy infrastructures (including its prospective nuclear power facilities) and hospitals & schools and has begun the process of integrating it is communication and transportation systems with those of neighboring states.
Iran has a long tradition of producing artisan goods, including Persian carpets, ceramics, copperware and brassware, glass, leather goods, textiles, and woodwork. Iran’s rich carpet-weaving tradition dates from pre-Islamic times, and it remains an important industry and contributes substantially to rural incomes. Textile mills, based on domestic cotton and wool, employed about 400,000 people in 2000 and are centered in Tehran, Isfahan, and along the Caspian coast.
large-scale manufacturing in factories began in the 1920s and developed gradually. during the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq bombed many of Iran’s petrochemical plants, and the large oil refinery at Abadan was badly damaged and forced to halt production. Reconstruction of the refinery began in 1988 and production resumed in 1993. However, the war also stimulated the growth of many small factories producing import-substitution goods and materials needed by the military.
The country’s major manufactured products are petrochemicals (w/a fertilizer plant in Shiraz), steel (w/mills in Isfahan and Khuzestan), and copper products. Other important manufactures include automobiles (with production crossing the 1 million mark in 2005), electric appliances (television sets, refrigerators, washing machines, and other consumer items), telecommunications equipment, cement, industrial machinery (Iran has the largest operational stock of industrial robots in West Asia), paper, rubber products, processed foods (including refined sugar and vegetable oil), leather products and pharmaceuticals. currently, 55 pharmaceutical companies in Iran produce more than 96% (quantitatively) of medicines on the market worth $1.2 billion annually.
Million marks in 2005. Iran Khodro is the largest car manufacturer in the Middle-east. it has established joint-ventures with foreign partners on 4 continents. As of 2001, there were 13 public and privately owned automakers in Iran, of which two – Iran Khodro and Saipa – accounted for 94% of the total domestic production. Iran Khodro, which produced the most prevalent car brand in the country – the Paykan, which has been replaced in 2005 by the Samand -, is still the largest with 61% of the market in 2001, while Saipa contributed 33% of Iran’s total production in the same year. The other car manufacturers, such as the Bahman Group, Kerman Motors, Kish Khodro, Raniran, Traktorsazi, Shahab Khodro, and others together produced only 6%.
These automakers produce a wide range of automobiles including motorbikes, passenger cars, vans, mini trucks, medium-sized trucks, heavy-duty trucks, minibusses, large size buses, and other heavy automobiles used in commercial and private activities in the country. Iran ranked the world’s 16th biggest automaker in 2006 and has a fleet of 7 million cars, which translates to almost one car per ten persons in the country.
Omid Satellite
Omid is Iran’s first domestically manufactured data-processing satellite for research and telecommunications. It was successfully launched on February 2, 2009. After being launched by an Iranian-made carrier rocket, Safir 2, the satellite was placed into a low earth orbit. The launch, which coincided with the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and was supervised by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was verified by NASA the following day as a ‘success’. Its Satellite Catalog Number or USSPACECOM object number is 33506. Ahmadinejad said the satellite was launched to spread “monotheism, peace and justice” in the world.
The satellite will be used to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone regions of Iran and improve Iran’s telecommunication capabilities. Omid had the shape of a 40-centimeter (16 in) cube with a mass of 27 kilograms (60 lb). Sources in the Iranian Space Agency say the satellite’s sole payload was a store and forward telecommunication capability The launch of Omid makes Iran the ninth country to develop an indigenous satellite launch capability.
Omid was reported to have completed its mission without any problems. It completed more than 700 orbits over seven weeks. Based on U.S.A Strategic Command, the Omid satellite reentered Earth’s atmosphere on 25 April 2009, during an 8-hour window centered on 0342 UT. The most likely reentry location was over the south Atlantic Ocean approximately east of Buenos Aires, Argentina. No sightings were reported. The rocket body from the launch, which had also entered orbit, re-entered the atmosphere on 31 May 2009. Later on, Iran launched Rasad 1 on 15 June 2011 which orbited for three weeks.