Significant plunge in Iran's petrochemical, condensate exports

Iran's petrochemical products and condensate exports, which shares about a half of Iran's total exports, have decreased by 40 percent in past five months.

Iran's Custom Administration released its monthly report on August 28, saying the total non-oil exports during first five months of current solar year (started on March 20) is $15.2 billion, while imports during this period reached $16.3 billion.

Iran includes condensates in non-oil exports list.

According to the report, Iran exported $3.1 billion worth of condensates in past five months, (averagely $620 million per month), which indicates a 14.3 percent decrease compared to the same period of last solar year.

Iran exported more than $10 billion worth of condensates in a solar year which ended on March 19, 2012. This figure decreased to $8 billion during the last solar year (ended on March 20, 2013), then comparing current condensate export with the last two years, the figure shows about 26 percent plunge.

On the other hand Iran's petrochemical products exports have decreased by 14.4 percent in the first five months and reached $3.9 billion compared to the same period of last year.

Iran's petrochemical products exports were $15 billion in a year which ended on March 19, 2012, while this figure reduced to $10 billion the last solar year (ended on March 20, 2013).

Therefore, Iran's average monthly petrochemical exports has decreased by about 40 percent during last two years.

Excluding petrochemical products and condensate, Iran's other non-oil export value in last five months is $8.2 billion, which indicates a 1.7 percent drop compared to the same period of last solar year.

It seems Iran attempts to boost iron ore export to compensate drop in condensate and petrochemical exports. The country exported $552 million worth of iron ore in the last five months, which indicates a 95 percent increase compared to the same period of last solar year, however, the country's total steel products imports reached $280 million in the first five months of this solar year.

Resuming Iran's non-oil trade turnover shows the country's total exports and imports in the first five months decreased by 7.99 and 26.36 percent respectively.


Dalga Khatinoglu    /Trend/