More than 129.6 million tons of goods were loaded and unloaded at Iran’s 21 major ports in the last fiscal (March 2018- 19) registering 17.07% decline compared to the similar period a year ago.
The 21 ports include the southern ports of Abadan, Imam Khomeini, Bushehr, Khorramshahr, Genaveh, Lengeh, Chavibdeh, Arvandkenar, Charak and Dayyer off the Persian Gulf.
Shahid Rajaee, Shahid Bahonar, Qeshm and Tiab at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, Jask and Chabahar on the coast of the Gulf of Oman and the northern ports Fereydounkenar, Noshahr, Astara, Amirabad and Anzali near the Caspian Sea.
Data published in the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran's website show non-oil goods accounted for 88.4 million tons of the total traffic – down 18.5% year-on-year.
The remaining 41.48 million tons were oil products, indicating a 13.62% decline YOY.
Container traffic also decreased by 42.32% to stand at 1.77 million TEUs.
More than 63.15 million tons of goods were exported from the ports and over 27.34 million tons were imported.
An estimated 6.59 million tons of goods were in transit through the said ports during the past year.
According to the deputy head of Ports and Maritime Organization, Hadi Haqshenas, more than 200 vessels call on Iranian ports every day, Mehr News Agency reported.
Chairman of the Majlis Development Commission Mohammad Reza Rezaei Kouchi says Iran’s 11 major commercial ports have up to 80% untapped capacity, IRNA reported.
Iran's non-oil exports reached 117.22 million tons worth $44.31 billion last year to register a 12% decrease in volume and a 6% decline in value year-on-year.
Imports amounted to 32 million tons worth $42.6 billion, down 17.5% in volume and 22% in value over last year.
As such, non-oil foreign trade during the 12-month period stood at $86.92 billion, indicating 14.1% decline compared to last year.
Iran recorded a non-oil trade surplus of $1.69 billion in the last fiscal (March 2018-19).
Busiest Ports
Close to 67.74 million tons of goods were loaded and unloaded in Hormozgan Province’s Shahid Rajaee Port, down 21.2% compared to the year before.
Shahid Rajaee Port was the busiest during the period under review. Non-oil goods accounted for around 43.6 million tons and oil products 24.3 million tons of the total, showing a 28.38% and 2.92% fall respectively.
Located 23 kilometers west of the port city of Bandar Abbas, the capital of Hormozgan Province, Shahid Rajaee Port is Iran’s biggest container port.
Over half of Iran’s commercial trade passes through Shahid Rajaee. The port complex also accounts for over 85% of all container traffic.
According to head of Iranian Parliament’s Development Commission Mohammad Reza Rezaei Kouchi, Shahid Rajaee Port has a 6% share in the region’s total container traffic per annum, ILNA reported.
Imam Khomeini Port in southern Khuzestan Province was the second busiest during the ten months under review, handling more than 38.98 million tons of cargo. The figure was down 10.6% YOY.
Non-oil goods accounted for 26.77 million tons and oil products for 14.21 million tons of the total throughput in Imam Khomeini Port, registering a 1.04% rise and down 16.94% respectively year-on-year.
The third busiest was Qeshm Port also in the south. More than 6.09 million tons of goods were loaded and unloaded, indicating a 11.9% fall compared to the same period last year.
Non-oil goods accounted for more than 5.9 million tons and oil products for 112,096 tons of the total traffic in Qeshm Port, down 12.02% and 5.33% respectively YOY.
Close to 16.4 million passengers used the aforementioned ports – down 3.46% compared to last year’s similar period.
