Petrochemical Exports Up 75% in Five Years

EghtesadOnline: The National Petrochemical Company's exports have witnessed a 75% hike in the last five years.

News ID: ۷۴۵۸۳۲

08 August 2018

According to Shana, the Oil Ministry's news portal, NPC's exports stood at 12.8 million tons in 2013, which gradually increased to 18.8 million tons in 2015, 20.4 million tons in 2016 and 22.4 million tons in 2017.

The company sold as much as 11.2 million tons of commodities in the first quarter of 2017, indicating an 8.7% rise compared with last year's corresponding period.

The export figure stood at 22.4 million tons in March 2017, showing a 75% increase compared to that of 2013, according to Financial Tribune.

NPC's domestic sales in 2017, at 30.7 million tons, experienced an 11% hike compared to that of previous year at 27.6 million tons.

According to the latest statistics issued by Oil Ministry, Tehran earned $3.1 billion by exporting petrochemicals between March 21 and June 21, selling as much as 13.2 million tons of value-added products.

Iran's petrochemical revenues in 2017 stood at $12 billion, showing a 25% rise compared to that of 2016 at $9.5 billion.

Adopting policies to complete the petrochemical value-added chain has helped the country increase its output capacity from 40.6 million tons in 2013 to 54 million tons in 2017, marking a 35% rise.

According to projections published by NPC, the company's output will increase by 5 million tons at 65 million tons by the end of the current fiscal in March 2019.

Shana added that the country's petrochemical complexes' feedstock, namely ethane, rose from 2.7 million tons in 2013 to 4.7 million in 2017, showing an 85% hike in five years.

Five petrochemical ventures, worth $1.5 billion, including Entekhab Petrochemical Plant, Pardis Petrochemical Complex, Takht-e-Jamshid Petrochemical Complex and Morvarid Petrochemical Company all in Asalouyeh, Bushehr Province, as well as the second phase of Kavian Petrochemical Complex in Pars Special Economic Energy Zone went on stream in 2017.

NPC hopes to lift nominal output capacity to more than 120 million tons per annum by 2022, the last year of Iran's Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan.

Tehran earned $9.55 billion in revenues from petrochemical exports last year, official data show. Petrochemical consignments went mostly to Asia, Europe and South America.

Petrochemical is Iran's biggest industry after oil and gas.