Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 29
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran exported $1.4 billion worth of polymer raw materials during the first five months of the current fiscal year (March 20-Aug. 20, 2016), Mahmoud Bazari, director general of the Cargo Exports Department at the Trade Promotion Organization, said.
Value of exported polymer raw materials to China, Iraq and Turkey has increased, meanwhile the value has decreased for exports to India and Afghanistan, Bazari said, Mehr news agency reported.
He further said that Iran has exported $963 million worth of motor oil in the 5-month period as well, indicating a rise by 43.5 percent year-on-year.
Bazari also said that the country’s petrochemical plants also exported $963 million worth of hydrocarbon products including LPG, during the first five months of the current fiscal year.
The figure indicates a 8-percent fall compared to the same period of preceding year, he added.
Iran’s actual production capacity is around 61 million tons per year, but the shortage of natural gas as feedstock, old production units and the sanctions which have dropped exports, have caused petrochemical complexes to work at a lower capacity.
Iran hopes to bring the capacity to 120 million tons by 2020 and 180 million tons by 2025.
The country produced 46.4 million tons of petrochemicals during the last fiscal year, but for the current year, the figure is planned to reach 54.7 million tons.
The Islamic Republic exported $8.698 billion worth of non-oil goods in the sixth Iranian calendar month (Aug. 21-Sept. 21).