Iran's Non-Oil Trade Surplus Tops $700m in 9 Months to Dec. 2018

EghtesadOnline: Iran recorded a trade surplus of $738 million in the nine months ending Dec. 21, 2018, the latest report by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration shows.

News ID: ۷۸۴۴۴۴

31 December 2018

Exports, excluding crude oil, mazut, kerosene and suitcase trade, hit 86.94 million tons worth $33.35 billion, indicating a 1.84% decline in tonnage and a 5.4% increase in value year-on-year.

Imports amounted to 23.87 million tons worth $32.62 billion, down by 13.27% in weight and 15.9% in value over last year’s similar period.

All in all, Iran’s non-oil foreign trade during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (March 21-Dec. 21) stood at $65.97 billion, indicating a 4.68% decrease compared with last year’s corresponding period, according to Financial Tribune.

Iraq was the main customer of Iranian products in the nine-month period. Iran’s exports to Iraq reached $6.92 billion to account for 20.77% of the total value of overall exports during the period. Exports to Iraq increased by 48.7% compared with the same period of last year

By “non-oil”, IRICA refers to all commodities, except for crude oil. Therefore, oil-driven products and byproducts as well as petrochemical products are still categorized as non-oil. IRICA categorizes non-oil exports into three groups of petrochemicals, gas condensates and “other products”.

Petrochemicals accounted for 34.34% of Iran’s total exports and gas condensates group for 8.32%, as exports of non-petroleum based products, including carpets as well as agricultural, industrial and mining products classified within the “other products” group constituted 57.34% of Iran’s overall exports.

Gas condensates group included exports of gas condensates worth $2.77 billion (8.32% of total exports), liquefied natural gas worth $1.81 billion (5.44% of overall exports), liquefied propane worth $1.35 billion (4.07% of total non-oil exports), methanol worth $1.14 billion (3.42% of total exports) and other light oils and products, except for gasoline worth $1.11 billion (3.34% of overall exports).

Imports mainly included field corn ($1.47 billion with a 4.53% share of total imports), auto parts, except tires ($1.21 billion with a 3.7% share of total imports), rice ($1.02 billion with a 3.14% of total imports), soybeans ($944 million with a 2.89% share of total imports) and graphite electrodes used in furnaces ($437 million with a 1.34% share of total imports).

Iraq was the main customer of Iranian products in the nine-month period. Iran’s exports to Iraq reached $6.92 billion to account for 20.77% of the total value of overall exports during the period. Exports to Iraq increased by 48.7% compared with the same period of last year.

After Iraq, Iran’s top trading partners in terms of export during the nine-month period were China, the UAE, Afghanistan and Turkey.

China bought $6.74 billion worth of non-oil goods from Iran during the nine months of the year, accounting for 20.23% of total value of Iran’s exports.

Exports to the UAE stood at $5.13 billion or 15.39% of Iran’s overall non-oil exports. Exports to Afghanistan and Turkey hovered around $2.33 billion and $1.91 billion, respectively.

Nine-month exports to Afghanistan accounted for 7% of Iran’s total non-oil exports and those of Turkey constituted 5.73% of Iran’s overall non-oil exports.

The main exporters to Iran during the period were China with $8.17 billion (25.05% of the value of Iran’s total exports), the UAE with $4.91 billion (15.06%), South Korea with $1.83 billion (5.62%), Germany with $1.82 billion (5.59%) and Switzerland with $1.79 billion (5.5%).