Goods Transit Through Iran Rises 7% (October 2018)

EghtesadOnline: More than 5.77 million tons of oil and non-oil commodities were transited through Iran during the first seven months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Oct. 22) to register a 7% rise compared with the corresponding period of last year.

News ID: ۷۸۴۳۴۲

20 November 2018

According to Director General of Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization's Transits and International Transportation Bureau, Reza Nafisi, over 3.46 million tons of the total sum (about 60%) were non-oil products and the remaining 2.31 million tons were oil products.

"The main transited non-oil products during the seven-month period were auto spare parts, cotton, agricultural products and foodstuff," the news portal of RMTO quoted him as saying.

More than 1.61 million tons of commodities were transited from Shahid Rajaee Port in the city of Bandar Abbas in the southern Hormozgan Province during the period under review, accounting for around 29% of all goods in transit, Financial Tribune reported.

The port was the most active point of entry among the country’s 32 border terminals during the seven months.

Located 23 kilometers west of the port city of Bandar Abbas, the capital of Hormozgan Province, Shahid Rajaee Port is Iran’s biggest container port at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz.

Over half of Iran’s commercial trading is carried out at Shahid Rajaee Port, which also accounts for over 85% of all container throughput in the country.

Shahid Rajaee Port was followed by the border terminals of Parvizkhan in Kermanshah and Bashmaq in Kurdestan, accounting for 24% and 10% of all transited goods respectively.

Nafisi added that a majority of goods in transit headed from Iraq to the UAE.

The routes leading from the border crossings of Parvizkhan to Imam Khomeini Port, Shahid Rajaee Port to Bashmaq and Bashmaq to Imam Khomeini Port were the busiest over the period.

“Thanks to measures taken by the Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization for coordinating all responsible bodies in the field and engaging in transit-related negotiations with neighboring countries as well as with the private sector active in the international transportation sector, we were able to increase our transit figures despite the pressure and limitations the US has been trying to impose in this respect,” Nafisi said.

The United States has renewed sanctions against Iran after it announced the decision to unilaterally pull out of the nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers in 2015.

The landmark deal saw the removal of international economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. In exchange, Tehran agreed to limit the scope of its nuclear program. The US pullout from the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency maintains that Iran remains committed to curbs set on its nuclear activities. Europe is working hard to salvage JCPOA.