TEHRAN, Iran, Aug. 9
Trend:
Iran's bitumen exports continue, yet there are obstacles, Vice President of Bitumen Commission in Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters Union Seyed Hamed Hosseini told Trend.
"There are many problems because banks are putting up obstacles every day, block accounts, so we're evading the global banking system. This is dangerous," he said.
"An exporter isn't sure about receiving export revenues, so this is damaging," he said. "They have to face heavy losses, since their money is frequently blocked in banks."
"In the current Iranian year (started March 21,2021) more than $1 billion worth of bitumen will be exported and this volume must be transferred by bank but the difference between the NIMA rate and free market rate is considerable," he said.
Hosseini pointed out that one of the major problems for production units is COVID-19, which are located in 'red zones'.
"Most of employees of these production units were infected by COVID-19, so the factories were forced to shut down, and were not able to comply with their production and financial commitments. Some of these commitments were toward refineries, transportation companies and domestic banks. It is expected that more cooperation would occur in this regard," he said.