Baku, Azerbaijan, June 28
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran’s attempts to regain the lost share in the European countries’ petrochemical markets will not be so easy, Fariborz Karimaei, deputy head of Iranian Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporation, said.
Iran rapidly lost its 12.5 percent export share in the EU petrochemical market due to sanctions, meanwhile the figure has revived only to 0.5 percent following the removal of sanctions in January, Karimaei said, Mehr news agency reported June 28.
“The process will not be that easy and years will be needed for Iran to return to the point left under the sanctions,” he said, adding that financial, insurance, shipping and logistical limitations should be removed completely in order to increase petrochemical exports to Europe.
“So far, companies from Italy, Germany and Austria have submitted requests for import of petrochemical products from Iran, but it [the import] needs more time to become operational,” he added.
He further said Iran and the Saudi company Sabic are competing over the European petrochemical market.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Karimaei said Iran’s petrochemical export to the African countries is increasing.
Iran is exporting petrochemical products to South Africa, Algeria, Egypt and Kenya, he said.
Iran’s petrochemical output capacity currently stands at 61 million tons. The Islamic Republic hopes to bring this capacity to 120 million tons by 2020 and 180 million tons by 2025.
Petrochemical plants in Iran had to work below the actual production capacity due to the shortage of natural gas as feedstock, old production units, and the sanctions, which caused a decline in exports.