20% reduction of pollution in Tehran with standard filters / counterfeit filters; The silent killer of humans
EconomyOnline-جواد هاشمی; In an interview with Eqtesad Online, Mohammad Cheraghi, president of the Iranian Filter Manufacturers Association, said that official filter factories in Iran have only half of the market and that there is no necessary supervision over other products offered in the oil change industries. This has the effect of increasing air pollution.
What percentage of the car air and oil filter market in Iran is domestically produced?
In terms of consumption, we change the air and oil filters in Iran about 350 to 360 million times a year. Consumer filters in the automotive industry are not just air and oil filters, fuel filters and cabin filters are also added to these. In heavy machines, we also have filters such as gearbox filter, steering wheel filter, etc. What is currently produced in Iranian factories occupies about 40 to 50% of the consumer market. The rest of the market is for imported filters as well as filters produced in “underpass workshops”.
Why is the share of domestic producers in our market low?
In Iran, there is a problem that foreign brands are more popular than domestic brands and people always like to use foreign filters. This causes many informal manufacturers, so-called “sub-brands”, to market their products under the name of well-known foreign filters. Even some importers to sell their filters in the Iranian market, pack their goods under the name of famous brands. For example, it is a French filter brand that is widely used for the Peugeot family. This filter has no representative in Iran and is not imported from France, but in all our oil changes, it is full of this French brand and people unknowingly buy these counterfeit filters at a high price. If this filter is purchased, it is a substandard product that will damage their car. Since these filters are sold under the name of external filters and there is no price on them, high amounts are received from customers for them.
In terms of quality and price of the product, what is the status of domestically produced filters compared to foreign samples?
Most truck drivers are technical people, and the sensitivity to the quality of truck filters is much higher than that of passenger cars. Fortunately, we see that technical drivers often use internal filters for their trucks because they have found from experience that they are of high quality and much less likely to be counterfeit than filters sold under foreign brands. This shows that the official filter manufacturers in Iran have the ability to produce products to compete with world brands. Our filter industry is not only active in the field of automobiles, but we also use domestically produced filters in the medical, chemical, petroleum, aviation, etc. industries.
Has the industry been successful in terms of exports?
We have experience in exporting to other countries such as Eurasia, Iraq, Syria, etc. in different types of filters. To the extent that sanctions have allowed the filter industry, we have been able to export. At times when Peugeot France or Renault were in Iran, they worked with our domestic filter makers.
There is a perception among people that sanctions have lowered the quality of many auto parts, what parts of the auto industry have been affected by sanctions, and what have been the challenges and solutions to sanctions?
It is true that after the sanctions, we could not work with any of the companies we used to work with, but now the most important thing in the filter industry is the media, which is not a problem. The rest of the materials used in the filter are metal, glue and such materials that we have in Iran and the sanctions have no effect on it.
What is the reason for the many complaints that are heard these days about the poor quality of air filters, oil and other types and car oils?
A large part of this decline in quality is the presence of counterfeit goods on the market, which are produced in the same underground workshops and sold as foreign goods. When you buy an external filter from a wholesaler, they write under the invoice that they are not responsible at all and there is no guarantee for that product. But the internal filter maker has to stand up and be accountable for his name and reputation. The problem often goes back to the same 50% that is either produced in downstream factories or is one of the low quality products they import.
Has any action been taken to deal with profiteers who produce and sell counterfeit filters? What institutions have a duty to prevent such abuses?
This is a multifaceted task and requires the formation of a working group in which members of the Penitentiary, the Standards Organization and experts in the field of filters are present so that when they go to an oil change, they can distinguish the original products from counterfeit ones. Encounter violations. Let me give you an example, a large number of filters for Maserati cars have been imported in our customs so far. How many Maserati cars do we have in Iran? Well, the customs officer is not a filter expert who knows what kind of filter he is entering with this title. Punishment usually goes to products that have the required information about it, for example, examines Iranian oil that knows what the approved price is so that if someone sells expensive, it will be dealt with. In this working group that I mentioned, there must be someone who can distinguish the original product from counterfeit. Officers should not refrain from checking oil when it is a foreign product. They should ask the seller if this product is genuine, where is the green leaf? Where and at what price did you buy it and at what price do you sell it to people?
What are the harms of using fake filters for a car?
Currently, the most expensive asset of any family after housing is their vehicle. With the increase in the price of cars in the market, the cost of repairs has also increased. Suppose a person in their car unknowingly uses a counterfeit external filter or counterfeit oil, this causes damage to the car engine, the repair of which imposes a lot of costs on the car owner. Unfortunately, there is no expert to check and say that this is due to the use of poor quality filter.
On the other hand, we have a filter cabin in cars that when using the car air conditioner and heater, the air outside this filter passes to be filtered. Unfortunately, the filters produced in the underpass workshops use a layer of suit adhesive, and the air that passes through these filters is not only not filtered, but also becomes more polluted and can harm people’s health. We still do not have a good standard in the field of car cabin filters.
Do the quality of the filters also affect air pollution?
Using the right air filter can reduce fuel consumption by up to 20%. This means reducing air pollution by up to 20%. When the filter does not work properly and large particles enter the engine compartment, its efficiency decreases and the so-called machine suffocates. To compensate for this low efficiency, more fuel must enter the engine and fuel consumption will increase, resulting in increased air pollution.
How can people distinguish genuine filters from counterfeit ones?
It is not very possible to tell if a filter is counterfeit by its appearance, and it is the function of the filters that determines whether it is genuine or counterfeit. We are talking about micron scale filters that are not recognizable to the naked eye. The only way is for people to buy their filter from a reliable place. It is now safer to buy Iranian brands, as most undercarriage manufacturers prefer to replace their counterfeit filters with foreign ones and sell them to make more profit. Note also that the filters and oils that are produced in Iran are responsible for all types of domestic and foreign cars, and this mentality is wrong that because such and such a car is foreign and has a certain amount of price, so you must have foreign filters and oils and prices for it. Prepared above. In this case, it is enough that the product used has the standards that the car needs. Psychologically, when the price of a car goes up, people prefer to pay more for its filters, and this mentality exists because they pay more, so they will definitely receive higher quality, which is not always true due to the existence of counterfeit filters in the market.
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