TEHRAN – Japan’s general trading firm ITOCHU has signed a contract, worth €320 million, for financing petrochemical projects in Iran.

The deal was signed with Iran’s Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (PGPIC) in Tehran on Saturday, Shana reported.

Back in September, Japan’s integrated trading and investment business conglomerate, Marubeni, signed a deal with the same value with PGPIC on financing petrochemical projects in Iran.

PGPIC has announced that it plans to attract €1.5 billion in foreign investment within the framework of short-term (usance) and medium-term contracts by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 2017).

Managing Director of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company Marzieh Shahdaie said in August that Iran needed more than $50 billion for completing its semi-finished projects in the petrochemicals sector.     

Companies from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Japan and even the U.S. have indicated readiness to participate in Iran’s petrochemical projects, she noted.

Last year, Iranian companies exported about $12.8 billion of petrochemical products. Iran currently produces 60 million tons of petrochemicals a year. This capacity will increase by 8.5 million tons by March 2017 when a number of new projects become operational.

EF/MG