Transformer manufacturing industry in Iran is now 50 years old. In 1966, Tehran Regional Electrical Company, Siemens and Industry and Mining Bank of Iran stablished a company named Iran Transfo in Rey, near Tehran. Iran Transfo started with a modest production of 106 distribution transformers in 1968 and now is the biggest manufacturer of distribution and power transformer in the Middle East. After Iran Transfo other local manufacturers emerged. Namely Niroo Transfo (1976, Distribution Transformers), Niroo Trans (1990, Instrument Transformers), Kian Transfo (2013, 3D wound core distribution Transformers) and Aria Transfo (2016). The latter is now the second Manufacturer of power transformers in Iran (after Iran Transfo) capable of manufacturing 550MVA and 420KV transformers. This company transferred the technology from SGB-SMIT group and officially started production on 25^th of Aug. 2016.

Although these transformer manufacturers (mostly Iran Transfo) managed to export $52,895,000 in 2015 (83% were exported to Syria) but if all these companies start production 24/7 with 100% production capacity, they cannot supply the growing demand for transformers inside Iran. In 2015 alone, 161 power transformers (above 33KV) and 26174 distribution transformers were added to the national network and the Ministry of Energy (Tavanir) forecasted the demand for 769 new power transformers for approved substation projects. Moreover transformer fleet in Iran is old (1700 out of 4915 power transformers already installed in the national grid are above 20 years old) and the rate of failure is relatively high (59 power transformers were replaced in 2015 due to failure. i.e. more than1.2% annual rate of failure in the grid). Besides distribution losses in Iran is high (above 12%). In order to reduce the losses, some distribution companies decided to replace old transformers with new low loss transformers. For instance in 2016, Tehran Regional Electrical Distribution Company (TREDC) decided to replace 43000 distribution transformers with new ones to reduce Tehran distribution network losses by 2.5%. TREDC is not yet decided whether to buy these transformers from local manufacturers or the foreign companies.

Above said facts only cover transformers in the national grid and do not even include transformers in other heavy industries like Cement, Aluminum, Steel, Petrochemical plants, Refineries and … (which unfortunately no genuine statistics regarding transformers are available).

Import taxes on transformers are high: 15% for transformers below 10MVA and 26% for transformers above 10MVA (except for Turkey and Tunisia which are given preferential tariffs). Despite high import taxes and the fact that there are lots of local regulations restricting foreign procurement of transformers, the import is on the rise: total value of imported transformers in 2015 was $13,469,000 comparing to $10,908,000 in 2013 i.e. 23% increase.

For transformer components it is a different story. A decree by Tavanir (issued on 22.09.2014) to Distribution companies to accept only low loss transformers, forced distribution transformer manufacturers to use only high quality material. For instance before this decree almost all distribution transformer manufacturers used locally made paraffinic insulating oil but now all of them are using imported naphthenic oil. Also most of the components of power transformers are imported: On-load Tap Changer, Insulating Paper and Oil, Core, Bushings, Thermometers, Buchholz relay, pressure relief valve, etc. and it is not only transformer manufactures who procure these items, Transformers in operation needs component replacement in great quantity as well.

Below are import data of some of transformer components in 2015:

Transformer Component	Import Duty (%)	Value of imported goods ($)	Countries with high percentage of export to Iran
Grain Oriented magnetic Core*	20	34,868,000	India: 81% South Korea: 14%
Insulating Oil*	5	19,955,000	India: 87% Sweden: 6%
On-load Tap changer	5	6,914,000	Germany: 67% Turkey: 25%
Bushings	5	1,359,000	China: 77% UAE (re-export): 16%

*These items have other applications besides transformers thus not all the import values should be attributed to transformers alone.

More facts and statistics regarding transformer business in Iran are published in issues 1 to 5 of Iran Transformer Magazine, some in English but mostly in Persian, English translation of these statistics can be provided upon request.

International Transformer Conference and Exhibition (ITCE), is the most important annual event in transformer industry in Iran in which the key people involved in transformer business (manufacturers, service and repair companies, component sellers, consultants, test equipment manufacturers,  transformer users and …) take part. In ITCE 2016 also 26 companies attended this event in which Iran Transfo, ABB and Siemens were the gold sponsors.

It is a good opportunity for foreign companies active in Transformer business to get firsthand information from the transformer market and its key players in Iran.

For more information about us and download the first issue of Iran Transformer Magazine please visit our website:

www.Transformer-Magazine.ir

Transformer Magazine

11th Issue