Germany's main export to Iran is machinery

BERLIN // Germany's main export to Iran is machinery for use in a variety of industries, followed by metals, chemical products, agricultural goods, vehicles and vehicle components, according to official statistics. Pharmaceuticals, electronics and optical equipment are also high up on the list. In 2008, 22 per cent of Iran's imports of machinery came from Germany, second only to Italy, which accounted for 24 per cent.
A total of 17.5 per cent of Iran's machinery imports came from China, according to the German Engineering Industry Association (VDMA). Iran is not a major export market for Germany. In 2008, it ranked 42nd among German export destinations. Many machinery suppliers are in the small and medium-sized business sector famous for producing highly specialised equipment. Linde, a gases and engineering company, said last month its exports to Iran were "not substantial". The VDMA said trade with Iran had been declining for years and that it was not a core market, accounting for less than 1 per cent of engineering exports.
Babcock Borsig Service, an engineering group specialising in the power generating industry, said it regularly supplied minor replacement parts for a power station in Iran. Hamburg Port Consulting, a German port development firm, last month cancelled talks on a project to expand the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas after criticisms against the deal emerged. Bayer, the chemicals and pharmaceutical group, sells drugs, seed, pesticides and cellular materials to Iran and said its business there was "small".
BASF, another chemicals group, also exports to Iran and said last month it saw no reason at the moment to limit or cease its business operations there. Daimler, the car maker, said it still had a 30 per cent stake in Iranian Diesel Engine Manufacturing, which makes engines for buses and lorries, but had scaled down its vehicle exports as a result of German government restrictions on the sale of lorries weighing more than 20 tonnes or with three or more axles. About 100 German companies are members of the German-Iranian Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Tehran.
As part of Germany's policy of discouraging companies from doing business with Iran, the government-backed export credit guarantees for deliveries to the country have been sharply reduced in recent years.
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