TEHRAN – The loading and unloading of commodities at the ports of Abadan County in the southwest of Iran rose 166 percent during the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-July 22), as compared to the same period in the previous year, a provincial official announced.

Kambiz Maleki-Zadeh, the director-general of the Ports and Maritime Department of Abadan County, said that 21,476 tons of commodities were loaded and unloaded in Abadan ports during the mentioned four-month period.

As previously reported by the country’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO), the loading and unloading of goods in the ports of Iran increased by seven percent in the first four months of the present Iranian calendar year, as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

As the PMO reported, 73,026,069 tons of commodities were loaded and unloaded in the ports during the four-month period.

Of the mentioned figure, 48,993,458 tons were related to loading, and 24,032,661 tons were related to unloading.

The loading of goods in the mentioned period also increased by nine percent as compared to the figure for the previous year’s same four months.

During the said period, loading and unloading operations in the container sector reached 871,132 TEUs, which was three percent more than the 849,527 TEUs in the first four months 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 facilitating the loading and unloading of goods, especially basic commodities, there.

It is worth mentioning that Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization 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 the course of five years.

According to the PMO, 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).

MA