A total of 10.4 million tons of foreign goods were transited through Iran from the beginning of the current Iranian year on March 21 to Dec. 21, according to Mohammad Rezvanifar, director general of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
The official noted that the transit volume shows an 8.6% rise compared to last year’s corresponding period, Fars News Agency reported.
Shahid Rajaee Port in the southern Hormozgan Province accounts for the largest share of foreign goods transited via Iran.
The port, which has a loading/unloading capacity of 100 million tons per year, accounts for over half of Iran's trade and about two-thirds of total freight transit through the country. It is Iran’s biggest commercial port.
With 18 gantry cranes and 40 berths, Rajaee is the most advanced container port of Iran.
Launched in 1985, the port has expanded every year and is currently connected to 80 ports worldwide.
The significance of this port lies in its large capacity, including its location in the Persian Gulf, container terminal, fuel bunkering, access to 24 kilometers of railroads and round-the-clock truck transportation.
Other major gateways in transit from Iran are Bashmaq in western Kordestan Province, Bazargan in West Azarbaijan Province, Parvizkhan in Kermanshah Province, Bileh Savar in the northwestern Ardabil Province, Sarakhs in the northwestern Khorasan Razavi Province, Jolfa in East Azarbaijan Province, Bandar Lengeh in Hormozgan Province, Lotfabad in Khorasan Razavi Province and Astara in the northern Gilan Province.
Active Use of INSTC
Among the reasons for the rise in transit volume are more active utilization of the International North-South Transportation Corridor.
INSTC is a major transit route designed to facilitate the transportation of goods from Mumbai in India to Helsinki in Finland, using Iranian ports and railroads, which the Islamic Republic plans to connect to those of Azerbaijan and Russia.
The corridor connects Iran with Russia’s Baltic ports and give Russia rail connectivity to both the Persian Gulf and the Indian rail network.
Goods are carried along this corridor from Mumbai to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and further to Baku and then pass across the Russian border into Astrakhan before proceeding to Moscow and St. Petersburg, before entering Europe.
INSTC substantially cuts the travel time for everything from Asian consumer goods to Central Eurasia’s natural resources to advanced European exports.
The conflict between Ukraine and Russia together with Iran’s unique geopolitical location have given boost to this international route.
The first transit shipment under eTIR carnets (TIR Convention) was successfully accomplished along the INSTC in late 2022.
“The transit shipment included industrial alcohol weighing 21,970 kg and worth $82,000. It was declared to the customs terminal at Shahid Rajaee Port [in the south] by India and sent in one container to Russia from Astara Customs Terminal [in the north],” Hossein Saeedi, a Shahid Rajaee customs official, said.
“Transit documents and carnets used to be sent physically and manually to the customs and transportation companies, the process used to take two to three weeks. But now all documents are being sent to customs online in one day and as soon as possible. Electronic TIR procedure will facilitate transit procedures, help the development of the north-south corridor, electronic exchange of information between countries and trade,” he was quoted as saying by IRIB News.
E-TIR system allows the two countries to have access to all related information at any time and view the information of cargo before delivery, which is useful for both sides and decreases the risk of deception, accelerates customs formalities and reduces costs. TIR Convention is a multilateral treaty concluded in Geneva on Nov. 14, 1975, to simplify and harmonize the administrative formalities of international road transport.
Behnam Faramarzian, the head of international transportation and TIR Carnet Department of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, said so far, no TIR carnet project has been carried out by two companies.
“Generally, only one company conducts TIR carnets projects. The transfer of goods from India to Iran to Russia was carried out by two companies, one Indian and the other Iranian,” he was quoted as saying by Otaghiranonline.ir.
“This method accelerates customs process and the time needed to transfer goods from the origin to the destination. This pilot project has been successful so far; if it produces desirable results it can help the development of transit through Iran. Iran has the necessary infrastructure to implement this project, we are ready to carry out this project again if other countries are willing to cooperate and have needed equipment.”
Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Turkey Corridor
The first container train on Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Turkey corridor, carrying sulfur cargo, arrived in Tehran railway station from Incheh Borun Border Terminal last month before setting off to Turkey and Europe.
It carried 24 wagons and 48 twenty-foot containers, IRNA reported.
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has called on his partners in Central Asia to make more active use of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway.
"We encourage our partners to make more active use of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway, the shortest route between East Asia and the Persian Gulf countries," Tokayev was quoted as saying by Interfax at the summit of the heads of the Central Asian countries in Cholpon-Ata.
This new logistical solution makes it possible to cover more than 6,000 km in only 12 days, the president said. Moreover, the Kazakh seaports Aktau and Kuryk on the Caspian Sea coast can provide access to the markets of the Middle Eastern and European countries.
Tokayev also said it is necessary to increase the transport connectivity of the region and to consistently improve transit conditions.
Nurlan Sauranbayev Chairman of Kazakhstan National Railways (KTZ) who recently accompanied a high-ranking delegation to Iran said in a meeting with Miad Salehi, the CEO of the Islamic Republic Railways that the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding, based on which, part of the freight carried along the China-Russia-Europe rail corridor will be redirected through China-Kazakhstan-Iran-Turkey rail transportation route.
They signed another MoU with the aim to expand Tehran-Tashkent bilateral rail transportation ties, set preferential transportation tariffs and help increase transit through the two countries.
The operationalization of Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul Corridor (ITI-ECO) road and rail routes in late 2021 has also been instrumental in boosting the volume of transit through Iran.
