Currently, there is no need to establish a consortium of domestic urea exporters, as there is an implicit coordination among major companies active in the industry, the managing director of Pardis Petrochemical Company said.
“It is not necessary to set up an export consortium under a joint brand,” Hossein Shahriari was also quoted as saying by NIPNA on Sunday.
Shahriari stressed that as urea is sold at different prices in global markets, the joint sale of the product at a fixed price will not benefit Iranian petrochem companies.
"India is the only market to which Iranian suppliers jointly sell urea occasionally, the official said, adding that commercial managers of the companies normally agree on each company’s share in advance.
Shahriari noted that following the completion of Lordegan, Masjed Soleiman and Hengam petrochemical companies, it will be vital to establish a joint company to export urea to international markets.
Lordegan and Hengam plants, each with 1.07 million tons of urea output capacity per year, are planned to go on stream in the current fiscal (ending March 20, 2019).
While the Lordegan plant is located in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province, Hengam Petrochemical Company is being built on Hengam Island in the Persian Gulf.
The construction operation of the first phase of the petrochemical project in the city of Masjed Soleiman in southern Khuzestan Province has registered an 80.11% progress by June and is projected to become operational by March.
Rising Capacity
The new urea production units are part of Iran's drive to raise petrochemical production capacity from 62 million tons to more than double that amount in five years. Iran's actual petrochemical production in the previous fiscal year exceeded 50 million tons.
Based on the National Petrochemical Company's reports, the country’s total petrochemical exports in the last fiscal valued at $12.01 billion, up 25% compared to the previous fiscal’s revenues that amounted to $9.54 billion.
On the other hand, with the launch of new phases of the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf, the petrochemical complexes’ ethane consumption reached 4.7 million tons in the past fiscal from over 2.6 million tons in the fiscal 2013-14.
“While Khorasan Petrochemical Company supplies its output to Afghanistan and Iran’s northern neighbors and Kermanshah Petrochemical Industries Company exports urea to Iraq, Shiraz Petrochemical Company sells the bulk of its urea production to domestic consumers and delivers the surplus to foreign markets,” he said.
Shahriari added that as a Turkish investor is the major shareholder of Razi Petrochemical Company, the enterprise exports most of its output to Turkey. According to the official, Pardis Petrochemical Company, which accounts for 65% of Iran’s urea export and 6.2% of the world’s, supplies the product to European and South American markets.
Pardis produces over 3.2 million tons of urea per annum.
