Gas and electricity outages in Iran’s industries are one of the serious economic issues that have affected production and employment in recent years.
Manufacturing industries require continuous access to energy to maintain production stability. However, in practice, frequent electricity and gas outages have halted production lines and reduced efficiency. This issue has imposed heavy costs on industries and decreased product quality.
Furthermore, the persistence of energy carrier outages indicates that the energy infrastructure is incapable of meeting industrial demands. Even with financial resources, industries cannot return to stable production, disrupting the entire economic cycle.
Iran: 50% Reduction in Industrial Production Due to Power Shortages
Mohammad Atabak, Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mines, and Trade, announced that in recent government meetings, the imbalance and shortage of energy for industries have been a constant topic of discussion.
He emphasized that Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of the Iranian regime, has expressed his support for ensuring the supply of gas and electricity for production. In this regard, a support package has been prepared in collaboration with the private sector and is set to be presented to the cabinet after approval by the Economic Commission.
However, two weeks after this announcement, there has been no news of the support package’s approval.
The Minister of Industry once again announced that the package is under review in the cabinet and stated that its details will be announced within the next two sessions. He emphasized that the support package will be provided to production units to compensate for electricity and gas outages in industries. According to him, this measure is being implemented for the first time and is not merely symbolic.
According to a report presented by Mohammad Atabak, the electricity supplied to industries in the first half of this year was 40% less than the same period last year.
Moreover, the downtime in industrial production has increased from 14% last year to 22%. This reduction in access to electricity and gas has had devastating effects on industrial production and efficiency.
The Ministry of Industry, Mines, and Trade announced that the losses caused by reduced production in the country’s major industries reached 1.73 quadrillion rials (approximately $2.1 billion) in the summer of 2024 alone.
Alireza Kolahi, head of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce’s Industry Commission, explained the main points of the support package. He stated that deferring payments for water, electricity, and gas in industries is one of the core policies of this package.
According to him, this measure is proposed to reduce financial pressure on industrial units and prevent their closure.
Alireza Kolahi also mentioned the deferral of loan installments as one of the key solutions in this package.
However, the financial crises of Pezeshkian’s administration have made it difficult to completely eliminate penalties.
He emphasized that expecting industrial units to pay interest on loans, taxes, and other expenses is impossible when many of them operate only two days a week.
Pezeshkian’s government has discussed measures such as tax deferrals, insurance premium postponements, and loan repayment extensions. Special facilities for paying energy costs have also been included in this package.
Nevertheless, frequent electricity and gas outages have left many production units unable to pay taxes and other expenses.
This demonstrates that the support package cannot address the underlying problems.
Many experts believe that with the continuation of gas and electricity outages, there will be no production to export.
The continuation of outages has reduced industrial revenues, ultimately leading to lower employment and higher unemployment.
Support packages have no impact because they fail to resolve the primary issue of sustainable energy supply.
