Iraq has now overtaken China as the main non-oil export market for Iran, the latest report by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration for the seven months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Oct. 22, 2018) confirms an earlier projection by Financial Tribune.
Iran’s exports to Iraq surged by 55% in value and more than 65% in weight to reach $5.73 billion to account for 21% of the total value of Iran’s exports during the period.
Iran mainly exports liquefied gas, hydrocarbons, mineral products, fresh or frozen tomatoes and evaporative coolers to Iraq.
Secretary General of Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce Hamid Hosseini said as Iraq is beginning to rebuild the infrastructure destroyed by terrorists, a number of its cities, especially Mosul and Kirkuk, can be a suitable market for Iranian construction materials and foodstuff.
"Iraq has six million displaced citizens, four million of whom have returned after the terrorists were defeated. Iranian products can be the best option to provide for these people, however our share in the markets of Mosul and Kirkuk is relatively low at present and we need to increase it," he told IRNA.
Hosseini referred to a trade delegation from Mosul that recently visited Tehran for the first time in 15 years and said the visit is a testament to Iraqis' increased attention to Iranian goods.
After Iraq, Iran’s top export destinations during the period were China, the UAE, Afghanistan and India in a descending order.
China bought $5.38 billion worth of non-oil goods from Iran during the seven months, 11% more than last year's corresponding period.
Exports to the UAE stood at $4.63 billion, registering a more than 32.5% increase year-on-year.
Exports to Afghanistan and India hovered around $1.87 billion and $1.39 billion, respectively.
Exports to Afghanistan increased by 24% while those to India decreased by nearly 7.5% YOY.
Iran's exports, excluding crude oil, mazut, kerosene and suitcase trade, hit 67.36 million tons worth $27.22 billion, indicating a 1% decrease in weight and a 13% increase in value YOY.
Petrochemicals Top List of "Non-Oil" Exports
By “non-oil”, IRICA refers to all commodities, except crude oil. Therefore, oil-driven products and byproducts, as well as petrochemicals, are still categorized as non-oil.
IRICA categorizes non-oil exports into three groups of petrochemicals, gas condensates and “Other Items”.
A total of 17.65 million tons of petrochemicals worth $8.5 billion were exported during the period, registering an increase of more than 11% in weight and 26% in value compared with the same period of last year. In fact, petrochemicals accounted for 31.42% of Iran’s overall non-oil exports.
Exports of gas condensates stood at $2.71 billion, accounting for 9.98% of total exports to post a year-on-year decline of more than 48% in weight and a 31% fall in value.
Exports of liquefied propane stood at $1.22 billion constituting 4.49% of total exports, light oils except gasoline fetched $980 million and accounted for 3.6% of total exports and methanol earned $849 million and formed 2.54% of total exports.
Mon-oil products, including carpets, agricultural as well as industrial and mining products, are classified within “Others” group. These exports reached 44.48 million tons worth $15.95 billion, indicating a rise of 5.5% in weight and 20% in value YOY.
Products in “Others” group were mainly exported by the private sector, accounting for 58.6% of the total value of Iran's non-oil exports.
The average price of each ton of exported commodities hovered around $404, up close to 15% compared with last year’s corresponding period.
Field Corn Tops List of Imports
Imports during the period amounted to 18.92 million tons worth $26.3 billion, down more than 9% in weight and 11% in value over last year’s similar period.
The imports mainly included field corn ($1.1 billion accounting for more than 4% of total imports), auto parts ($1.09 billion/more than 4%), rice ($985 million/nearly 4%), soybeans ($789 million/3%) and graphite electrodes used in furnaces ($320 million/more than 1%).
Major exporters to Iran during the seven-month period included China with $6.62 billion (accounting for 25% of the value of Iran’s total exports), the UAE with $3.93 billion (15%), South Korea with $1.63 billion (more than 6%), India with $1.5 billion (close to 6%) and Germany with $1.42 billion (more than 5%).
Imports from China dropped by 4%, those from the UAE and South Korea fell by 25% and 21% respectively as imports from Germany declined by 11% YOY. India’s exports to Iran grew by less than 1%.
The average price of each ton of imported commodities hovered around $1,390, down 2.5% year-on-year.
$926m Trade Surplus
In all, Iran’s non-oil foreign trade during the seven months of the current fiscal year (March 21-Oct. 22) stood at $53.53 billion, indicating a 0.13% decline compared with last year’s corresponding period.
The country, however, saw a trade surplus of $926 million in the seven-month period.
Iran’s non-oil trade with the world during the month ending Oct. 22, which marks the end of the Iranian month of Mehr, stood at $8.22 billion, indicating a year-on-year increase of 3.5%.
Exports amounted to 10.71 million tons worth $4.1 billion for the month while imports reached 2.7 million tons worth $4.12 billion to register a trade deficit of $15 million for the country in the first month of Q3, according to the Persian economic daily Donya-e-Eqtesad citing IRICA's data.
Exports of petrochemicals reached $1.52 billion in Mehr, gas condensates amounted to $300 million and exports of items included in “Others” group hit $2.27 billion.
