Iran’s Non-Oil Foreign Trade Up 15.5 Percent

EghtesadOnline: Iran’s non-oil foreign trade in the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2018) stood at $101.23 billion, indicating a 15.5% rise compared with the year before.

News ID: ۷۴۵۱۴۲

10 April 2018

Exports during the 12-month period hit 132.3 million tons worth $46.93 billion, indicating a 6.56% rise year-on-year, the latest report by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration reads.

Imports amounted to 38.73 million tons worth $54.3 billion, up 24.31% YOY. The key driver of growth in imports was the higher inflow of basic goods, auto parts and capital goods.

Exports of industrial goods saw a rise of 22.27% last year while exports of petrochemicals and gas condensates experienced a decline of 8.29% and 3.28%, respectively, Financial Tribune reported.

The biggest exports include petrochemical products worth $15.14 billion (accounting for 32% of the value of total export), followed by gas condensates with $7.79 billion (16% of total exports), liquefied natural gas with $2.49 billion (5% of total exports), liquefied propane with $1.47 billion (just over 3% of total exports), light crude oil, excluding gasoline with $1.32 billion (about 3% of total exports) and methanol with $1.17 million (over 2.5% of total exports).

The export value of items categorized as “others” hovered around $24.7 billion or 52% of overall exports, registering a rise of more than 22% compared with the year before.

China, the UAE, Iraq, South Korea and Turkey were Iran’s top export destinations last year.

Exports to China, Iran’s top trading partner, stood at 34.89 million tons worth $9.65 billion, posting a rise of 8.31% YOY.

Iran exported 18.08 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $6.76 billion to the UAE, registering a decline of 9.59% YOY.

Exports to Iraq saw a rise of 4.79% to stand at 13.09 million tons worth $6.42 billion.

Exports to South Korea jumped 52.25% compared with the year before to hit 10.06 million tons worth $4.38 billion.

Exports to Turkey experienced a rise of 22.88% last year to reach 10.93 million tons worth $3.24 billion.

Imports of intermediate goods stood at 29.91 million tons worth $32.75 billion, accounting for 60.31% of total Imports. This is while imports of $8.69 billion worth of 895,000 tons of capital goods accounted for 16.02% of overall imports.

Major exporters to Iran were China with $13.21 billion, the UAE with $10.06 billion, South Korea with $3.71 billion, Turkey with $3.19 billion and Germany with $3.83 billion.

Imports from China increased by 23%, the UAE by 57%, South Korea by 7%, Turkey by 17% and Germany 21.5%.