Developing Iran's Yarn Industry

With a view to developing a domestic supply base for industry, Iran's sole producer of nylon yarn, Sherkate Sahami Aliaf (Aliaf Company) received a $4.5 million loan, with a profit participation clause, from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 1971, to help finance a $17.1 million project that will double an annual production of 3,000 tons of nylon yarn. Besides granting a loan of $3.5 million equivalent, the International and Mining Development Bank of Iran (IMDBI), a private development finance company associated with the World Bank Group, joined Iranian and German shareholders in providing equity financing totalling $4 million, in addition to which, approximately $5.1 million is to come from cash generation, through company operations. While the two-year-old Aliaf Company had an output of about 40% of the annual consumption of 8,000 tons in 1971, supplying about 40 warp knitting mills and 3 stretch nylon yarn plants in Teheran and 3 other cities, the greater part of market demand, which is expected to reach 10,000 tons in 1976,was met by imported yarn, the project, part of a long-range expansion programme, is designed to eventually increase Aliaf's output to some 10,000 tons of synthetic fibre yarn, and is estimated to result, over a 10-year period, in net foreign exchange savings of $14 million.
Preparation section in an Aliaf nylon yarn plant in the Tehran area.