Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran's petrochemical exports surpassed $9.855 billion during the first 11 months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2013), which indicates an increase by 1.13 percent compared to the same period of last year, the country's customs administration reported on Feb. 24.
The country's petrochemical exports stood at $9.02 billion during the first 10 months of the current Iranian calendar year which indicates a 1.19 percent decrease compared to the same period of the preceding year.
Iran has exported $835 million worth of petrochemicals in the last Iranian calendar month (January 21- February 20) which indicates a fall of 7.6 percent compared to the $904 million worth of petrochemical exports of the preceding month.
Figure is also lower than the average monthly exports during the last 11 months which was $895.9 million.
It is while Western countries suspended certain sanctions against Iran as the Geneva nuclear deal came into force on Jan. 20. The prohibition on the import, purchase or transport of Iranian petrochemical products and related services was suspended as a result of the nuclear deal implementation.
However, Iran's petrochemical industry faced other domestic problem during the past month. The Iranian administration was forced to halt feeding gas to petrochemical complexes on account of increased domestic gas consumption due to the severe cold season led to a shortage in the country.
Iranian media outlets reported that the oil ministry has ordered the petrochemical complexes to lower their production rate to the minimum, or even halt production until further notice.
The Director General of the Petrochemical Employers Association told Mehr News Agency on Feb.4 that the damage of decreasing or halting petrochemical production during past 40 days is estimated at $1.5 billion.
Iranian petrochemical complexes need 30 to 35 million cubic meters of gas per day, but the gas supply to petrochemical complexes was reportedly reduced to 15 million cubic meters earlier in February.
The value of the country's overall non-oil exports during the first 11 months of the current Iranian calendar year accounted for $37.363 billion which indicates a fall of 1.52 percent compared to the same period last year.
Iran also imported 29.205 million tons of goods worth 42.796 billion during the period which shows a fall of 19.05 percent and 11.96 percent in terms of volume and value respectively compared to the same period of the preceding year.
Rice ($2.093 billion), press cake ($1.635 billion), wheat ($1.070 billion), corn ($1.307 billion) and motor vehicles with internal combustion engines ($1.097 billion) were the main imported items during the period.
Edited by S.M.