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Iran opens up industrial markets with logistics trade exhibition

Show follows nuclear-enrichment caps in July 2015 treaty.

A new trade exhibition scheduled for Tehran, Iran, in May will host attendees who want to track the Middle Eastern country's predicted growth in logistics, conveyance, storage, and other business areas as the country rejoins world markets after years of economic sanctions for its continued uranium enrichment.

Despite insistence that it was stockpiling the radioactive material to fuel nuclear power plants, many international observers feared the country was secretly developing a nuclear weapons program.


The standoff was resolved in the Vienna agreement of July 2015, when Iran agreed to give up two-thirds of its centrifuges and enrich uranium only up to certain levels of purity. In exchange, the country has been allowed to return to global commerce.

The trade show, called Smart Factory Iran, will focus on the impact of the move on three areas: logistics, conveyance, and storage; factory automation, robotics, and electrical engineering; and metal working, welding, and surface treatment.

Organizers say companies with expertise in these "smart industrial technologies" will be well positioned to meet new business opportunities triggered by a forecasted economic boom that could double imports to Iran as the nation moves to modernize its outdated infrastructure.

Under the new arrangement, Iran could see rapid growth in its industrial economy, according to the show's cohosts, German trade show specialists Fairtrade and their Iranian partners Palar Samaneh Co. Continued compliance with the treaty means that Iran could open its population of 80 million people to a sudden return to the world of modern commerce.

That impact could be quite large, since Iran imported an estimated $188 million to $270 million in logistics, conveyance, and storage technology during a period between 2010 and 2014, before sanctions were lifted, show organizers say.

The show is scheduled for May 23-25 on the Tehran International Fairgrounds. For more details see www.smartfactory-iran.com.

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