“Iraq with 424.74 million, Kuwait with $23.37 million and Afghanistan with $19.54 million were the top three export destinations of Iranian cement,” Rouhollah Latifi was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
Other customers of the product during the five months under review were India, Russia, Qatar, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China and Oman.
Latifi noted that the country’s production capacity currently stands at 85 million tons while domestic demand amounts to 65 million tons per year.
More than 17.5 million tons of cement and clinker were exported from Iran last year (March 2019-20), registering a 32% growth compared with the previous year, according to the head of Cement Employers Association.
“Cement accounted for 6.7 million tons and clinker for 10.8 million tons of the total sum. Our main export destinations over the period were Iraq, Kuwait, the Persian Gulf littoral states, China, Bangladesh, India and Central Asian Countries,” Abdolreza Sheikhan was quoted as saying by Mizan Online.
A total of 60.3 million tons of cement and 66 million tons of clinker were produced in Iran last year, showing a 9% and 6.9% rise compared with the year before, he added.
According to Sheikhan, Iran is the world’s sixth biggest exporter of cement chain products.
Iran aims to increase its cement production capacity to 100 million tons by 2021 and to 120 million tons by 2025.
Iran was ranked the seventh biggest producer of cement in the world in 2019, with a production of 60 million tons. The country was previously the world’s eighth biggest cement producer with 58 million tons and Turkey was the seventh biggest producer with 72.5 million tons.
As Turkey reduced its production in 2019, Iran took the seventh place, Iranian Mines & Mining Industries Development & Renovation, citing the United States Geological Survey, reported.