Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) plans to establish a joint shipping line, in order to accelerate exports and save transportation costs.
Last year, Iranian petrochemical companies paid over $1.5 billion for logistics and shipping of their products, Mehdi Sharifi Niknafas, the head of Iran Petrochemical Commercial Company, said, the press office of the NPC reported.
Currently, Iran exports over 30-35 million tons of petrochemical products, polymers, liquefied gas and gas condensates to global markets on a yearly basis, the official said, adding that under the current conditions establishing a joint shipping company is necessary and economically justified for transport of petrochemical products.
On the other hand, about 50 new petrochemical projects are underway in the country and once come into the stream, Iran’s petrochemical output capacity and exports value will witness a boom, Sharifi Niknafas said.
Referring to a recent meeting between a number of petrochemical companies, as well as Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and Petrochemical Engineering Transportation Company, to carry out further studies on the launch of the first Iranian petrochemical fleet, he said that given the global recession, current time is the best opportunity to build or buy ships, specially-adapted for the transportation of petrochemical products.
Sharifi Niknafas added that Iran needs at least 150 ships for export of petrochemical products.
The country’s nominal production capacity is planned to reach 70 million tons per year by March 2018.
Iran plans to inaugurate seven petrochemical plants in the current year and 23 more next year.
In total, 64 petrochemical projects are expected to become operational in Iran by 2021 to double the country’s nominal production capacity in the next five years.
Iran needs $20 billion of investment to reach the targeted plan and further $35 billion of investment is required to increase the figure to 150 million tons per year by 2025.