China has reclaimed its place as Iran’s top non-oil export market from Iraq after three months and cemented its position as Iran’s main source of imports, the latest foreign trade figures published by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration on Wednesday show.
Overall exports, excluding crude oil, mazut, kerosene and suitcase trade, hit 94.87 million tons worth $36.35 billion during the 10 months ending Jan. 20, indicating a 2.21% increase in value year-on-year.
Imports amounted to 26 million tons worth $35.67 billion, down more than 17.38% in weight and 18.87% in value over last year’s similar period.
Iran’s overall non-oil foreign trade during the ten months of the current fiscal year (March 21-Jan. 21) stood at $72.02 billion, indicating an 8.14% decrease year-on-year. In fact, the country recorded a trade surplus of $678 million in the 10-month period, IRICA said.
Iran’s exports to China during the 10 months reached $7.52 billion to account for 20.7% of the total value of Iran’s exports. Exports to China increased by 5.24% compared with the same period of last year.
After China, Iran’s top trading partners in terms of export during the period were Iraq, the UAE, Afghanistan and Turkey.
Iraq bought $7.51 billion worth of non-oil goods from Iran during the 10 months of the year, accounting for 20.67% of total value of Iran’s exports.
Exports to the UAE stood at $5.31 billion or 14.62% of Iran’s overall non-oil exports. Exports to Afghanistan and Turkey hovered around $2.53 billion and $2.02 billion, respectively. While exports to Afghanistan accounted for 6.97% of Iran’s total non-oil exports, those of Turkey constituted 5.573% of Iran’s overall non-oil exports.
Major exporters to Iran during the period were China with $8.9 billion (24.96% of the value of Iran’s total exports), the UAE with $5.45 billion (15.29%), Turkey with $2.03 billion (5.71%), Germany with $2.01 billion (5.66%) and India with $1.92 billion (about 5.4%).
By “non-oil”, IRICA refers to all commodities, except crude oil. Therefore, oil-driven products and byproducts, as well as petrochemical products, are still categorized as non-oil. IRICA categorizes non-oil exports into three groups of petrochemicals, gas condensates and “other items”.
Petrochemicals accounted for 33.92% of Iran’s total exports, gas condensates group 8.4% and exports of non-petroleum based products, including agricultural, industrial and mining products, as well as carpets classified within “others” group, constituted 57.68% of Iran’s total exports.
Gas condensates group included exports of gas condensates worth $3.05 billion (8.4% of total exports), liquefied natural gas worth $1.81 billion (4.99%), liquefied propane worth $1.48 billion (4.08%), methanol worth $1.22 billion (3.38%) and other light oils and products, except gasoline, worth $1.22 billion (3.36%).
Iran's imports over the 10 months mainly included field corn ($1.61 billion accounting for more than 4.54% of total imports), auto parts, except tires ($1.26 billion/3.55%), rice ($1.1 billion/3.09%), soybeans ($975 million/2.73%) and soymeal ($493 million/1.38%).
