The‌ ‌construction‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌railroad‌ ‌and‌ ‌other‌ ‌infrastructure‌ ‌construction‌ ‌required‌ ‌huge‌ ‌amounts‌ ‌of‌ ‌cement‌ ‌that‌ ‌Iran‌ ‌had‌ ‌to‌ ‌import.‌ ‌To‌ ‌prepare‌ ‌for‌ ‌the‌ ‌needed‌ ‌cement‌ ‌for‌ ‌domestic‌ ‌use‌ ‌the‌ ‌plan‌ ‌for‌ ‌the‌ ‌construction‌ ‌of‌ ‌a‌ ‌cement‌ ‌plant‌ ‌was‌ ‌laid‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌month‌ ‌of‌ ‌Shahrivar‌ ‌in‌ ‌1311‌ ‌SH‌ ‌and‌ ‌it‌ ‌was‌ ‌ready‌ ‌on‌ ‌Friday,‌ ‌Dey‌ ‌8th‌ ‌1313‌ ‌SH‌ ‌(1934‌ ‌AD).‌ ‌Some‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌equipment‌ ‌was‌ ‌bought‌ ‌from‌ ‌Denmark‌ ‌and‌ ‌Sweden.‌ ‌And‌ ‌the‌ ‌plant‌ ‌was‌ ‌located‌ ‌in‌ ‌Shahr-e‌ ‌Rayy,‌ ‌close‌ ‌to‌ ‌Cheshme‌ ‌Ali.‌ ‌It‌ ‌was‌ ‌constructed‌ ‌by‌ ‌the‌ ‌Germans.‌ ‌The‌ ‌initial‌ ‌output‌ ‌was‌ ‌one‌ ‌hundred‌ ‌tons‌ ‌daily‌ ‌and‌ ‌it‌ ‌increased‌ ‌with‌ ‌the‌ ‌addition‌ ‌of‌ ‌other‌ ‌chimneys.‌

A few miles from Tehran lays the ancient capital of Rayy, holding the secrets of many civilizations, now being excavated by Eric Schmidt. He is the successor of Professor Herzfeld at Persepolis and with his band of young archaeologists is carrying on the splendid labors of his predecessor. Away to the left, dwarfing altogether the distance between, towers the mighty cone of Mount Demavend, a mountain which signifies as much to the Persian as Fujiyama to the Japanese-and though the chimneys of His Majesty's cement plant nearby testify to the huge strides being made in the industries of the country, nothing can change the glory of the setting sun, turning that eternal snow-capped peak a blush rose and bathing the dusty plain in a carpet of gold, across which the tinkle of endless camel bells sends you a message, charged with the ancient history of this magnificent country. Looking down on that golden radiance from the old fort of Rayy, I knew then that the landscape of Iran, unique unto itself, had eaten into my very soul, and I felt that the two exquisite tomb-towers, one in the village of Demavend, and the second that of Ala-ud-din (I28I) near the battered mosque at Veramin, could hold their own against all modern monstrosities.

Baroness Ravensdale, Persia in 1935

The first step to launch the cement industry in Iran was taken by Ali Gholi Khan Sepahi Donboli, known as Mohandes Al-Dawlah, who graduated from the Zurich Polytechnic in 1913. In 1918, he signed a contract with the Ministry of Public Utilities to obtain a monopoly on the construction of a cement plant, but this contract was not implemented because the National Assembly was closed until five years later due to war conditions and the monopolistic atmosphere had to be approved by the parliament.

After the reopening of the parliament, there were several applicants and it was concluded that instead of a monopoly, everyone would be free to build a cement plant. Other bidders for the contract with the government were Alexander Tumanyan, an Armenian investor, the Iran-Germany Company, Ettehadie trade union and Wanghu Co, respectively. Mohandes al-Dawla, because he had a contract with the government, imported equipment to build the plant, but because he was not assured about the output, he did not start building the plant.

Iran started taking long steps towards economic development and modernization from the beginning of 1921. But it was at the beginning of the Iranian year 1309 (March 1930), the government of Iran had decided to "develop new Industries as a means of reducing Imports and supporting the exchange".

On December 14, 1930, Reza Shah opened the eighth session of the Majles(parliament) the statement that 'We Wish this Majles to be known in the history 0f the country as the 'Economic Parliament'.

Apart from These arguments, there was also the Strong desire to make Iran into a self-reliant country that would be free from foreign Interference and Influence. To make this possible the government believed that Iranian Society and economy had to be modernized.

In this era, many projects, such as railroads, dams, roads, educational places and public places were handled and several industrial sectors in textile and foodstuffs were established. The construction of substructure facilities, offices, governmental organizations, roads, streets, dams and thousands of other projects brought Iran into a new era in the 20th century.

Until the 1930s, lime mixed with clay was used in Iran instead of cement. However, at that time Iran began a major development program. Numerous infrastructure projects (railway, dam, roads, factories, housing) were undertaken. Consequently, many industrial factories were established.

The old construction materials lacked necessary strength and efficiency to build economic construction with modem methods; therefore, the government started importing cement. Each year the size of the imports became bigger in as much that in 1935, Iran was the fourth cement importer of the world. However, because of several problems in transporting cement, due to using traditional delivery and lack of suitable roads and ports in different parts of the country, the imported cement was very costly; nevertheless, despite high price and difficult transportation, the demand for cement was still high.

In 1928, necessary studies and surveys were started for establishing first cement plant as well as assessing the raw materials reserve for this project. In 1930, a contract was signed by F. L. Schmitt, a Danish company to establish a plant, known as Rayy Cement with a production capacity of 100 tons cement per day and a government capital of 133,800 Pound sterlings for supplying machinery and 66,800 Pound sterlings for supplying power plant.

First Line

In 1933, Iran’s first cement production plant, the state-owned company Simān-e Rayy (Rayy Cement, 100 tons per day capacity), became operational. The capital of the company was funded by the government from the sugar revenue and the payment received by exporting agricultural products and dried fruit to Denmark. The cost price for the project amounted to 15 million Rials. Mr. Eng. Ali Gholikhan Sepahi (construction engineer) was the project manager. Later, he was appointed as the head of the plant.

On November 29, 1933, Ettela'at newspaper published a report on the opening of the first cement plant in Iran:

"It was still a few kilometers to the plant where high-rise buildings, the huge chimneys of the plant, adorned themselves with the thick smoke that emanated from them, drawing the viewers' attention to a point at the foot of the ruins of Rayy.

This was the Iranian cement plant that was officially inaugurated. The cars were moving in a row on Hazrat Abdolazim Shrine Road, the clear air and radiant sun had made this glorious day even brighter. The guests were all dressed in black to participate in the ceremony. This way led to the Iran Cement Plant.

Then the invitees Watched the Cement Plant working, the roar of the wheels and machines as they crushed pieces of stone, then softened, then baked, saw strange pots, rotating kilns, cement-making, Cement plants and other parts of the process had created a cheerful and refreshing atmosphere in the whole audience, everyone was happy to see this plant.

All in all, the cement plant is one of the useful plants and another step was taken for the prosperity and progress of the country's economy, as the Minister said at the end of his opening speech: it is hoped that this type of plants to be established in different parts of the country in order to meet the growing needs of the whole country in terms of cement."

The cement plant, located in Rayy in the south of Tehran, was inaugurated in 1933. This plant was the first major industrial complex that the government would be invested in for the next seven years. Built in land measuring 87,358 m2, the cement plant has three phases of construction: from 1933 to 1934, from 1937 to 1938 and in 1950. In each phase the capacity of the factory was improved— in the second phase a - 200 ton kiln was added and in the third phase a 300 - ton kiln— and new facilities were added. Most of the functional spaces were constructed in the period from1930 to 1938, including the central part of the complex. This part consisted of 15 different spaces from which eight spaces were being used as warehouses and the others were related to the production of cement .The factory and its cement mine were adjacent and thus attached to each other institutionally. Part of the area of the factory was allocated for worker and staff dwellings, but based on aerial photos this was not realized at least until 1960.

Second Phase

Due to high demand for cement and insufficient production of the company for meeting the local demands, the second unit of Rayy Cement with 200 tons per day was purchased from Polysius Company. The production line was started in 1936. 18 million Rials were spent for constructing this plant.

Third Phase

The huge leap in construction work and the ever-increasing cement consumption rate necessitated the construction of a third unit, and finally, the third production line was purchased from Germany for $ 98, 4016 purely from Germany and the reputable company Ferrostaal AG in Essen.

The capacity of the third line was 300 tons per day and its construction work began in 1939. Between 1939 and 1941, more than 75% of the construction work on this line had been completed and some machinery had arrived.

Because of World War II, the ship carrying the plant's equipment was confiscated by the Allies in the Suez Canal and its power plant machinery was confiscated. As a result, the workflow of the third line was stopped and this suspension continued until 1950. In 1950s, a supplementary contract was signed with Polysius in West Germany. Therefore, until 1952, only two cement kilns with a total capacity of 300 tons per day or, in other words, 90,000 tons per year were installed in Iran. World War II caused a 15-year delay in increasing the capacity of Iran's cement industry.

The Iranian left rode on a wave of relative political freedom that had started with the Allied occupation of 1941 and Reza Shah's abdication. It also profited from the bad socio-economic conditions of the 1940s and 1950s. After a war-related peak of employment, Iran suffered from high unemployment. Since 1941, it had been afflicted by mushrooming inflation, salaries far below the legal minimum wage (an older problem), increasing rural-urban migration, poor working conditions, and malnutrition. The Tudeh Party, openly communist and pro-Soviet since 1944 and whose "main social base was a coalition of the modern urban middle and working classes", and trade unions especially thrived in this atmosphere, organizing strikes and demonstrations throughout the 1940s.

The strongest unions, like the 1941 Central Council (CC), were Tudeh auxiliaries or Tudeh-controlled, most importantly the Central United Council of the Trade Union of Workers and Toilers of Iran (CUC). The latter was formed, in May 1944, through a merger of the CC with the socialist Central Board and, later that year, with other unions. Claiming 210,000 members in 1944 and 335,000 in 1946, it was by far the most heavy-weight trade union. The twenty six unions included service workers such as restaurant waiters, cinema attendants, and municipal roads sweepers; workshop employees-tailors, carpenters, cobblers, stonecutters, and bakery assistants; white collar employees, particularly clerks in the Ministry of Justice; as well as industrial wage earners such as miners, railway men, train mechanics, textile workers, glycerin workers, silo workers, match manufacturers, brewery workers, construction laborers, and cement workers.

Engineeer Manoochehr Salour—Fromer manager of Rayy Cement Plant and member of The Islamic Association of Engineers -- was forced to leave the management of the Rayy Cement Plant as a result of Tudeh Party Interference in industrial sites in 1947. in an he mentions the adverse effect of Tudeh Party on the cement plant "The situation of the Rayy Cement plant had deteriorated due to the activities and sabotage of the Tudeh Party agents and frequent workers Strikes, to the extent that parts of the plats were closed and many problems had arisen in cement production."

However, following the attempted assassination of the Shah in February 1949, the Iranian government of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi commenced a suppression of Tudeh and ultimately, 1953 coup against Mosaddegh is said to have "destroyed" the party.

Finally, in the second half of 1956, the third unit was put into operation, and thus the production capacity of Iran's first cement plant reached 600 tons per day. By November 1941, about 41 million Rials had been spent for the third line, which with the subsequent additional costs, the cost of the third unit was less than 50 million Rials.

One of the important features of the cement plant is that According to Hassan Farahani (pers. comm.), the last financial manager of the factory until 1976, the main body of laborers were the same as in 1934. It was only in 1976 that old workers were dismissed and a new generation was employed. Thus, in the course of 40 years, there was a shared experience between workers and the plant. Apparently, this relationship was more than just sharing tasks because the workers who lived nearby cared about the proper function of the factory and came in shifts other than their own to point out problems or to fix their own mistakes.

In 1970, it was determined to expand its cement capacity. So a 2,000-ton cement plant was built near it (Moshiriyeh town), the machinery of which was purchased from Germany and Czechoslovakia. It was put into operation after the revolution.

Thus, Location of Rayy Cement consists of two parts:

• The initial part, which is inside the historical context of Rayy city. This section was closed in 1981 due to air pollution and old machinery, and in 2018 it was registered as a historical monument and is to be turned into a museum of the cement industry.

• The second part, which is related to the 2000-ton development plan and is outside the city, the development plan was completed and utilized by 1985, and finally was handed over to Tehran Cement Company at a price of one billion tomans.

Therefore, the seventh line of Tehran Cement is the same as the former Rayy Cement plant development plan. The Other Tehran cement production lines are located in Ghani Abad area of ​​Rayy city (13 km of Khavaran road).