An engineering company from Geneva has become the first Swiss firm to win a contract with Iran’s oil and gas industries since international sanctions against the country were lifted as part of last year’s historic nuclear deal.

Welding Engineers, a Geneva-based company that supplies synthetic rubber finishing lines, signed a contract with Iran’s Sadaf Petrochemical Assaluyeh Co., according to Swiss and Iranian news agencies.
The Swiss company, along with some Italian firms, will help build a plant in southern Iran that makes several categories of finished products and a synthetic rubber product used in the petrochemical industry.
Swiss businesses, like many others around the world, have been eager to get a foothold in the Iranian market now that most trade sanctions have been lifted.
Due to its political neutrality, diplomacy and development interests, Switzerland has maintained a decades-long special relationship with Iran; however there remain obstacles to doing business with the Mideast nation.
Iran’s newly opened marketplace results from the nuclear deal among six world powers and Iran to curb the Mideast nation’s nuclear program.

Switzerland's MSC - the world's second largest shipping company - plans to expand its services to Iran.

Iran said on Sunday that the world’s second largest shipping company MSC from Switzerland will soon expand its services to the country’s ports.

Iran’s Ministry of Roads and Urban Development in a statement said an agreement had been signed with the MSC by means of which the global shipping giant will increase calls to Iran’s Bandar Abbas, Chabahar and Bandar Imam ports.

The agreement – that has been signed with the Ports and Maritime Organization Iran - will also facilitate the shipment of Iranian goods from international ports to the country through MSC.   

This came at a time that Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann is in Iran on a landmark three-day visit.   

The media reported in January that the MSC had started calling at the country’s southern ports after a hiatus of six years.

This came after an MSC container ship has docked at Shahid Rajaie port in the Persian Gulf coastal city of Bandar Abbas.

Iran’s shipping industry became the target of a series of US-led sanctions over the past few years that disrupted the traffic of ships to the country’s ports.

Those sanctions were officially removed last July when Iran and P5+1 group of countries – the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany - marked a milestone with their conclusion of nuclear negotiations.

Iran relies on container and bulk carriers to transport much of its basic needs, including food and consumer goods. Those willing to risk the liability associated with the Iran trade faced further deterrents as they could not get insurance coverage.