About 10 trillion rials ($237 million) worth of investments have been made in the development projects of Amirabad Port in the northern Mazandaran Province since President Hassan Rouhani first took office in August 2013, the former head of Amirabad Port and Special Economic Zone said.
“The port has the capacity for loading and unloading 7.5 million tons of cargo. The figure stood at 4 million tons before Rouhani became president,” Ali Khedmatgozar was also quoted by IRNA as saying.
Amirabad is currently the largest port facility on the Caspian shore and the third largest port in Iran. The 1,000-hectare port currently has nine berths, which can accommodate Ro-Ro vessels, trains and trucks.
In a visit to Amirabad in April, Rouhani inaugurated the second development phase of the port, consisting of six new berths with a 4-million-ton capacity, as well as new facilities such as warehouses and grain silos.
Rouhani said the development of Amirabad will contribute to “effective trade relations” with the Caspian Sea littoral states and Commonwealth of Independent States, referring to its connection to Iran’s rail network as a big development for Iran’s economy.
Plans are underway to expand grain handling facilities to boost its capacity from 7.5 million tons to 18 million tons by 2030. To achieve this, the grain silo capacity will be expanded from 170,000 tons to 500,000 tons.
Its oil storage capacity will be expanded from 16,000 cubic meters to 70,000 cubic meters to support fuel transit activities.
Amirabad will have a rail connection to Garmsar for transporting cargo to Tehran, Mashhad and other cities across Iran. A line from Garmsar to Incheh Borun along the Turkmen border has already been launched to provide landlocked Central Asian states a path to free waters through Iran’s rails and southern ports.
New shipping lines have been launched from Amirabad to the ports of Aktau and Astrakhan in Kazakhstan and Russia respectively, to reduce the time and cost of export to neighboring countries and improve the competitive edge of Iranian products in these markets.
Khedmatgozar said back in August 2016 that Italy plans to invest $450 million on the construction of a bioethanol manufacturing plant in the northern port.
Director General of Mazandaran Industries, Mining and Trade Organization Mohammad Mohammadpour said in June 2016 that Iran and Kazakhstan are working to build a joint venture refinery in Amirabad.
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