Arvand Petrochemical Company in Mahshahr, Khuzestan Province, registered a 289% increase in operating revenues in the first half of the current Iranian year (March 21-Sept. 22) compared with the same period of last year and earned a profit of $144 million.
The company sold 58,683 tons of S-PVC in the six months, which shows a tremendous increase of 525% in the export of the valuable product year-on-year, the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana reported.
Regarding the sale of E-PVC, the company had a 230% increase in export volume and a 699% rise in sales revenues compared with the first half of a year ago.
Arvand also registered a unique achievement in the export volume of the E-PVC product during the period under review, which was 317% higher than last year. It also increased its domestic sales of VCM product by more than 258% compared with the same period of last year.
The new record in sales and exports are set this year while the company had a successful year last year too, as its annual production surpassed 2 million tons, which was unprecedented in the history of the company.
Arvand is the largest producer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in the Middle East. With an annual production capacity of 2.8 million tons of various products, it produces chlorine, sodium hydroxide, suspension polyvinyl chloride, ethylene dichloride, vinylchloride monomer, caustic soda and a variety of PVC grades.
The company plans to build a new unit to increase its PVC output.
Currently, an estimated 730,000 tons of PVC are produced in Iran per year, of which 50% are manufactured by Arvand Petrochemical Company.
Because of rising demand in the domestic market and low market capacity in neighboring countries, the new PVC unit will have a production capacity of 300,000 tons.
PVC is the world's third-most widely produced synthetic plastic polymer (after polyethylene and polypropylene). About 40 million tons of PVC are produced annually.
It is a versatile material used in window frames, drainage pipe, water service pipe, medical devices, blood storage bags, cable and wire insulation, resilient flooring, roofing membranes, stationery, automotive interiors and seat coverings, fashion, footwear and packaging.
