Warehousing Tariffs to Increase Exponentially

EghtesadOnline: The Supreme Council of Iran Transport approved the exponential calculation of warehousing tariffs for imported goods parked at Iranian ports for more than 30 days.

News ID: ۷۸۵۹۰۷

04 February 2021

The measure is aimed at preventing the prolonged storage of commodities, particularly essential goods, at ports before their customs clearance, Mehr News Agency reported.

Fees, which are related to warehousing services and calculated in rial, will increase by 25% and port charges associated with freight shipping will rise by 35% as of the next Iranian year (starting March 21, 2021.)

Step-wise calculation of fees are expenses that are constant for a given period, but increase once a threshold (here 30 days) is crossed.

“A total of 4 million tons of essential goods were imported to Iran during the 10 months to Jan. 19,” Amir Talebi, an official with Government Trading Corporation of Iran, said.

Also known as necessity goods, essential goods are products consumers will buy, regardless of changes in income levels.

“Since the beginning of the current Iranian year [March 20, 2020], 194 vessels carrying essential goods were unloaded at Iranian ports. Imam Khomeini Port located in the southern Khuzestan Province accounted for 45% of imports, Bandar Abbas, a southern port city in Hormozgan Province, constituted 31% and Chabahar in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan accounted for 17% of total imports; the remaining volume entered the country via northern ports,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA in January.

According to an infographic published by Mehr News Agency last month citing figures provided by the Ports and Maritime Organization Managing Director Mohammad Rastad, over 7 million tons of essential and non-essential goods and 92,000 TEU containerized goods were parked at the country’s ports.

At present, over 1 million tons of cargos are either in the unloading process, or waiting to enter the ports.