Azerbaijan, Baku, Sep.2/ Trend R.Zamanov
Over 5.425 million tons of goods were transited through Iran in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year which started March 21, the Mehr News Agency quoted Iranian Deputy Roads and Urban Development Minister Shahriyar Afandizadeh as saying.
"The amount shows a 10 per cent increase compared to the same period in the previous year," he said.
"At least 95 per cent of the aforementioned amount (5.159 million tons) was transited via roads and the other five per cent by rail," Afandizadeh added.
"Transit of goods by road saw a 15 per cent increase compared to the same time span of the previous year," he explained.
Afandizadeh went on to note that about 2.563 million tons of transited good were oil products and 2.862 million tons were non-oil products.
"The transited consignments mostly consisted of fuel, construction materials, cotton, home appliances, vehicles, foodstuff and fertilisers," the official noted.
According to Afandizadeh, over 11.6 million tons of goods were transited through Iran in the past Iranian calendar year (ended March 20). The figure showed a 14.7 per cent rise year on year, he added.
About 10.7 million tons of goods were transited by road and 862.8 thousand tons by rail, showing respectively a 16.3 per cent rise and 2.5 per cent fall year on year.
Afandizadeh said that 106 countries transited their goods via Iran. Iraq, China, the UAE, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan transited the highest number of goods, he noted.