producing half of the 550 million square meters per year of the domestic output of tiles and ceramics, Yazd Province is the production hub of these products in Iran, the deputy head of Iran’s Tiles and Ceramics Association said.

“There are 76 production units active in the field in Yazd and the industry has created jobs for close to 300,000 people from the province’s 1.138 million population,” Nasrollah Sharif-Fard was also quoted as saying by IRNA.

Iran’s tile industry enjoys cheap and abundant energy and raw materials combined with indigenous expertise rooted in history. However, due to the market recession caused by an ongoing stagnation in the construction sector as well as the tile and ceramic industry’s overproduction due to the unrestrained issuance of factory licenses during the 1990s, production and exports have followed a downtrend over the past few years and growth in domestic demand has been weak.

Chairman of Iran Ceramic Producers Syndicate Behnam Aziz-Zadeh said last year that more than 150 million square meters of tiles and ceramics in excess demand were piled up in warehouses across the country.

“Local producers are operating at less than half their production capacity,” he said.