Bushehr Accounts for 16% of Iran’s Foreign Trade Volume
EghtesadOnline: Iran’s total foreign trade stood at 145.7 million tons worth $73 billion in the last Iranian year (March 2020-21), of which 25.05 million tons worth $8.42 billion were carried out via the southern Bushehr Province’s customs terminals.
“Bushehr Province customs had a 16.6% and 11% share in weight and value of Iran’s overall foreign trade during the period respectively,” Behrouz Qarehbeygi, director general of Bushehr Customs Administration, was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official noted that 24.56 million tons of goods were exported from Bushehr customs and 482,000 tons were imported in return over the period under review.
The exports mainly included petrochemicals, gas condensates and mineral products, which mainly headed to China, the UAE, Turkey, Pakistan, Singapore, Qatar, India, Brazil, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Imports, including banana, auto tiers and spare parts, fabric, fittings, industrial faucets and batteries, mainly arrived from China, the UAE, India, the Philippines, Ecuador, Germany, Russia, Italy, South Korea and Spain.
According to Siyavash Arjomandzadeh, the head of Bushehr Ports and Maritime Organization, a total of 45 million tons of commodities were loaded and unloaded in Bushehr Province’s ports last year.
“Oil and non-oil products accounted for 34.19 million tons and 10.36 million tons of the total sum respectively,” he said.
He added that container loading and unloading in southern Bushehr ports reached 209,847 TEUs.
“A total of 6,552 vessels entered the province’s ports, 1,850 of which weighed over 1,000 tons. Moreover, 237,000 passengers were transported through these ports, 118,000 of whom were incoming and 119,000 were outgoing,” Arjomandzadeh said.
The dredging of inner and outer channels of the southern port of Bushehr was completed last year.
The 1.9 trillion-rial ($8 million) project, which deepened the channels to 10.8 meters, allows for 30,000-ton deadweight ships to call at the terminal.
“About 5.75 million cubic meters of sediments and debris were dredged from the channels over 20 months,” Mohammad Rastad, the head of Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran said. “Before the completion of this project, Bushehr Port could only accommodate ships with a cargo capacity of 15,000 tons.”
Bushehr, one of the important ports in Persian Gulf with an international airport and highways, connects the city to Ahvaz in the northwest and Shiraz in the northeast. A secondary coastal road links Bushehr to Bandar Abbas in the southeast.