TEHRAN, Iran, Feb.16
Trend:
Iran's bitumen production and export have declined in the current Iranian year (started March 21, 2021), Vice President of Bitumen Commission in Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters Union Seyed Hamed Hosseini told Trend in an interview.
"Turkey has banned the entry of Iranian bitumen tankers, therefore Iran is not able to export bitumen to Georgia via Turkey. Several Turkish companies have obtained a permit to import bitumen from Iran but the major Iranian exporters are not able to export to Turkey," he noted.
A joint working group of Iran and Turkey's private and public sectors has been formed to solve the issue.
Following the ban on Iran's bitumen export to Turkey and Georgia, Iraq has captured the market and Iraqi tankers are exporting bitumen to Turkey.
This issue has created a problem for bitumen factories in northwestern Iran that used to export their products to Georgia.
Iran's export of bitumen to Turkey and Georgia is about 200,000 to 300,000 tons, which is equal to 8 to 10 percent of the country's export. Iran's total bitumen export is 2 million tons.