Ceramic Industry In Iran   Introduction: Ceramic Industry is one of the oldest industries in the world. Due to the abundance of raw material, namely soil and ease of production, ceramic objects are one of the oldest and most ancient signs of the early man ever found. As far as archeological findings and excavations are considered, Iran is the primary birthplace of this industry. And it was from Iran that the industry expanded to other parts of the globe. The first ever-excavated ceramic objects belonging to 10 to 12 thousand years ago were explored in Zagros mountain range in Iran. They were made manually using neither a clay wheel nor an oven for baking the clay. The discovered items in Silk Hills in Kashan (belonging to 8,000 year B.C.) and the discovered items in Susa (belonging to 2,700 B.C.) are indicative of the acquaintance and knowledge of their residents with an oven to bake the clay. During a developing trend Iran's ceramics flourished more to reach a turning point during Safavid's era. Exceptional and marvelous items were created in that era. Decorating historical monuments and buildings inclusive of mosques in Isfahan and other Iranian towns. The production of tiles suffered stagnation after the Safavad's era giving way to imported European china.   The industry suffered stagnation even further until 1960. Before then tiles were produced manually. Then Irana tile factory, the first manufacturer of tiles, was inaugurated. This was a turning point. Later Sa'di, Hafiz and Isfahan factories followed the suit. Later a few china factories were inaugurated to manufacture china- ware and sanitary ware. Unfortunately the activity of all factories was halted after the 1979 Revolution and during the Imposed War. But later during the First and Second Five Year Economic Development Plans (FYEDP) activities were restored and during the Second FYEDP the total production in the industry witnessed a 12.6% increase on the average. During 1999 the production of tiles exceeded 61 million sq. m and ceramics in general 82,000 tons. Over 22,000 workers were working in this industry. Three outstanding factors are responsible for the flourishing of the prosperous tile manufacturing business in Iran: one is abundance of soil as the raw material; the second is inexpensive energy sources and the third one cheap labor and high unemployment rate (there are plenty job applicants available). The products of this industry are divided into four categories: Tiles, sanitary ware, chinaware and industrial ceramics. The objective of this report is to study such classification. 1- Wall and floor tiles: Tile industry is ten thousand years old. Tiles used to be manually produced in small workshops before 1960. Then Irana tile factory was inaugurated. This was a turning point. Later Sa'di, Hafiz and Isfahan factories became operational to boost the production volume of machine made tiles. The above 5 factories were producers of wall tiles before the Revolution. But Nilu, Yazd, Alborz and Gilan factories were making floor tiles. Establishment of new factories after the Revolution brought their number to 16 units in 1994, with a total capacity of 37.3 million square meters in the same year. As the production volume boosted gradually, the number of production units was brought to 30 in 1999 with an annual capacity of 67.1 million sq. m. 15 units of which were allotted to production of wall tiles with 47.4 million sq. m. capacity, while the remaining 15 units were producers of floor tiles with 19.7 million sq. m. capacity. Such figures were indicative of 87.5% and 89.8% boost in number and capacity respectively compared to five years earlier. The production volume of tile manufacturers reached 60.9 million sq. m in the year 1999, indicating 8.7% growth compared to a year earlier and 65% growth compared to five years before that. The total number of the staff in the aforementioned production units equaled 14,000 people in that year (with 4,350 sq. m. per capita) and 91% output as the nominal production capacity. Such output fluctuated between 90% and 100% during the said Five Year Plans.   The total volume of tiles produced in the world amounted to nearly 4,764 million sq. m. in the year 1999 (2,200 million sq. m. in Asia and 1,430 million sq. m. in the European Union), while 1.2% of the said sum (figure) was produced in Iran, making us the 15th country in the world in this regard. The total global per capita consumption in the same year equaled to 0.7, while in Iran it was 0.8. The domestic sale volume of tile was 55.4 million sq. m. during 1999, totaling 1,385 billion rials, indicating a 72% increase in weight and 424.5% in value compared to five years earlier. Due to the commissioning of several factories, a remarkable growth has been witnessed in the Iranian tile industry during the recent years. Using the new technology and a notable diversification in plans and production a drastic change abruptly improved the tile industry. Not only the domestic requirements were met by such a boost in production volume, but also the way was favorably paved for tile export. Over 5.5 million sq. m. of tiles amounting to US $16.3 million were exported in 1999, indicating a decline of %8.3 and %6.8 respectively compared to a year earlier. The decline was mainly caused by global depression and stagnation as well as an international price fall. During this year 9% of the total Iranian exports belonged to tiles. Iranian tiles have been mostly exported to Canada, Central Asia, and the Persian Gulf states, Africa as well as Britain, Germany, Italy, France and Denmark.