Iranian Ports’ Throughput Down 9.2%

Around 61.7 million tons of goods were loaded and unloaded in Iranian ports from March 21 to Sept. 4, registering a decline of 9.2% compared with last year’s corresponding period, managing director of Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran, Mohammad Rastad, said. Non-oil imports and exports through ports stood at 11.7 million tons and 22.7 million tons over the period under review to post a decline of 16.6% and 1.2%, respectively. “The decline in imports has nothing to do with sanctions and is mostly the outcome of market condition. Traders chose to import less in the first half of the current year,” Mehr News Agency quoted him as saying.