Iran exported a total of $1.07 billion worth of commodities to member states of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) during the first five months of the current fiscal year (March 21-Aug. 22) to register a 48% rise compared with the similar period of last year, according to the secretary of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran’s ASEAN Desk.
“Our top export destination over the five months under review was Thailand with more than 395,000 tons worth around $266 million of imports from Iran, indicating an 88% hike in value year-on-year,” Mohsen Rezaeipour was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Iran’s main exported goods to Thailand were iron ingots, steel sheets, non-alloy zinc, chicken offal, petroleum bitumen and jelly.
“Indonesia with close to 352,000 tons worth $227 million was our second biggest export destination, registering a 29% increase in value compared with the corresponding period of last year,”
Not mentioning the weight and value of Iran’s imports from the ASEAN member states, Rezaeipour said purchases from these countries over the five-month period mainly included sugarcanes, palm oil, soybeans, rice, home appliances, fiber boards and mobile phones.
“Iran’s trade with ASEAN reached $3 billion in the last Iranian year [March 2020-21], which fell compared with the previous year. A declining trend began in Iran-ASEAN trade since fiscal 2018-19 after the US pulled out of the nuclear deal and reimposed economic sanctions against Iran,” he added.
The official noted that with the five-month increase in exports, the trend will hopefully start moving in the reverse direction this year.
ASEAN is an economic union comprising 10 member states in Southeast Asia, namely Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.
The union promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational and sociocultural integration between its members and other countries in Asia.
ASEAN's primary objective was to accelerate economic growth and through that social progress and cultural development. A secondary objective was to promote regional peace and stability based on the rule of law and the principle of United Nations charter.
Iran registered $1 billion in non-oil trade surplus in the first five months of the current fiscal year, according to Mehdi Mirashrafi, director gneral of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
Iran’s total foreign trade hit 59.3 million tons worth $34 billion during the period, registering a 14% and 38% growth in weight and value respectively, year-on-year, the news portal of IRICA reported.
Non-oil exports stood at 45.5 million tons worth $17.66 billion, registering a 20% and 63% growth in weight and value respectively compared with the corresponding period of last year.
The exports mainly included methanol, natural gas, polyethylene, semi-finished iron products, iron ingots, gasoline, liquid propane, iron pipes, urea and petroleum bitumen.
The first five destinations of Iranian exports were China with 12.3 million tons worth $5.9 billion, Iraq with 12 million tons worth $3.16 billion, the UAE with 5 million tons worth $1.9 billion, Turkey with 1.37 million tons worth $1.1 billion and Afghanistan with 2.16 million tons worth $885 million.
Imports stood at 13.8 million tons worth $16.63 billion from March 21 to August 22, registering a 5% decline in terms of weight but a 21% growth in terms of value YOY.
The top 10 imported products were cellphones, corn, soybeans, sunflower oil, barley, wheat, soymeal, palm oil, sugar and carbon electrodes.
The imports mainly came from the UAE (4.43 million tons worth $5.39 billion), China (1.1 million tons worth $3.6 billion), Turkey (1.57 million tons worth $1.8 billion), Germany (341,000 tons worth $668 million) and Switzerland (692,000 tons worth $572 million).
According to Mirashrafi, a total of 4.72 million tons of different kinds of commodities were transited via Iran during the same period, showing a 95% surge compared with the similar period of last year.
