TEHRAN – As announced by a provincial official, 940,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of goods were loaded and unloaded in Shahid Rajaee port, Iran’s largest and most-equipped container port, in the first half of the present Iranian calendar year (March 21-September 22).

Hossein Abbasnejad, the director-general of the Ports and Maritime Department of Hormozgan province, where the port is located, said that 22 million tons of non-oil goods and 16 million tons of oil products were loaded and unloaded in the port during the mentioned six-month period.

As previously announced, 1.708 million TEUs of goods were loaded and unloaded in Shahid Rajaee port during the previous Iranian calendar year 1400 (ended on March 20).

According to a report released by the Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO), the loading and unloading of goods in the ports of the country has risen 4.8 percent during the first half of the present year, as compared to the first half of the past year.

Based on the mentioned report, 109.733 million tons of goods were loaded and unloaded in the ports of Iran during the first half of this year, while the figure was 104.698 million tons in the first half of the previous year.

As reported, loading and unloading of non-oil products stood at 54.777 million tons in the six-month of this year, up 0.8 percent from 54.366 million tons in the same time span of the previous year.

In terms of oil products, this year’s figure was 54.955 million tons, rising 9.2 percent from 50.331 million tons in the past year.

For the container sector, a growth of 8.2 percent was achieved, as 1.273 million TEUs were loaded and unloaded in the first half of this year, while the figure was 1.176 million TEUs in the first half of the past year.

While Iran is combating the U.S. unilateral sanctions on its economy, the country’s ports as the major gates of exports and imports play a significant role in this battle. This role makes all-out support to ports and more development of them serious and vital.

Such necessity has led the government to define projects for more development of the ports and also take some measures to encourage investment making in ports, in addition, to facilitate loading and unloading of goods, especially basic commodities, there.

It is worth mentioning that Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) has defined a high number of projects to develop and improve the country’s ports, as the country aims to double the capacity of its ports in a course of five years.

According to Ports and Maritime Organization, the capacity of the country's ports has increased from 180 million tons in the Iranian calendar year 1392 (ended in March 2014) to 250 million tons in 1399 (ended in March 2021).

Enjoying the most modern container terminals and port equipment, Shahid Rajaee accounts for 85 percent of the total loading and unloading at the Iranian ports.

Given its significant role in the country’s import and export of products as well as transit and transshipment via Iran, the development of Shahid Rajaee Port has been among the most important development projects in the country.

MA/MA