TEHRAN- During the past Iranian calendar week (ended on Friday), 18,000 tons of commodities valued at $435 million were traded at the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME), showing 36 percent and seven percent growth in value and volume of trades, respectively, as compared to its previous week.

According to a report by the IME's International Affairs and Public Relations Department, there were 602,142 tons of commodities traded on both open auction and mineral & industrial trading floors of the IME worth more than $221 million.

On these two floors the IME sold 290,762 tons of steel, 2,540 tons of copper, 8,520 tons of aluminum, 120 tons of molybdenum concentrate, 200 tons of cast iron and 300,000 tons of iron ore.

Furthermore, the exchange saw trade of 415,336 tons of commodities valued at almost $215 million on both domestic and export pits of its oil and petrochemical trading floor.

Commodities purchased on this floor included 124,500 tons of vacuum bottom, 142,964 tons of bitumen, 74,529 tons of polymeric products, 38,105 tons of chemicals, 33,200 tons of lube cut, 2,592 tons of base oil, 150 tons of argon, 250 tons of insulation and 1,190 tons of sulfur.

There was also 1,038 tons of commodities traded on the IME's side market.

The value of trades at Iran Mercantile Exchange in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) rose 108 percent compared to the preceding year.

During the past year, about 3.5 quadrillion rials (about $83.5 billion) worth of commodities were traded at the mentioned market.

As reported, over 33.39 million tons of goods valued at 3.12 quadrillion rials (about $74.43 billion) were traded at the exchange’s physical market, registering 27 percent and 127 percent of growth in terms of weight and value, respectively.

In the mentioned year, several new records were achieved in terms of the volume and value of transactions in the mentioned market’s various floors including the industrial, petroleum, and petrochemical floors.

The IME’s mineral and industrial trading floor witnessed the trade of 13.738 million tons of commodities worth more than 1.66 quadrillion rials (about $39.5 billion) in the said year.

This floor was a platform to sell 12.437 million tons of steel, 207,205 tons of copper, 238,920 tons of aluminum, 13,795 tons of zinc, 1,300 tons of cast iron, 515 tons of lead, and 675 kg of gold bars.

On its oil and petrochemical trading floor, the IME traded more than 5.141 million tons of commodities worth over 833 trillion rials (over $19.8 billion), to register 11 percent and 96 percent of growth in terms of value and weight, respectively.

Saffron and dates were the top traded commodities on the agricultural floor with 84 tons of saffron and 610 tons of dates being sold on this floor.

IME is one of the four major stock markets of Iran, the other three markets are Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), Iran's over-the-counter (OTC) market known also as Iran Fara Bourse (IFB), and Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX).

MA/MA