TEHRAN – As announced by a provincial official, the loading and unloading of goods in Bushehr port, in the southwest of Iran, increased by 64 percent in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20- October 21), as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

Mohammad Shakibi-Nasab, the head of Bushehr province’s Ports and Maritime Department, said that 2.05 million tons of oil products, and 1.9 million tons of non-oil goods were loaded and unloaded at this port during the mentioned seven-month period.

The loading and unloading of oil products rose 95 percent and that of the non-oil goods increased by 45 percent in the first seven months of this year, as compared to the same period of time in the previous year, according to the official.

Based on the latest data released by the Iranian Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO), some 135,555,142 tons of goods were loaded and unloaded at the country’s ports in the first seven months of the present year.

As reported, during the mentioned seven months more than 16.233 million tons of oil products and over 30.184 million tons of non-oil goods were unloaded at the Iranian ports, while the loading of oil products in ports was reported to be 46.75 million tons, and the loading of non-oil goods was 43.61 million tons.

Totally, more than 46.418 million tons of oil- and non-oil goods were unloaded at the Iranian ports in the said four months, and over 89.136 million tons of oil- and non-oil products were loaded.

During the mentioned period, loading and unloading operations in the container sector reached 1,831,960 TEUs, which was 16 percent more than the 1,576,884 TEUs in the first seven 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 five years.

Ports and Maritime Organization has put it on the agenda to attract 300 trillion rials (about $600 million) of investment from the private sector in the country's ports by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (late March 2025).

As reported by the PMO portal, the mentioned investment is going to be used to develop the infrastructure and operational capacity of the country’s ports.

Earlier this year, PMO Head Ali-Akbar Safaei said over the past few years the organization has managed to attract nearly $1.7 billion of foreign and domestic investment in the country’s ports and maritime sector.

Speaking in a press conference on July 10, Safaei said some 620 trillion rials (about $1.24 billion) of domestic investment and $470 million of foreign investment have been attracted in the mentioned sectors.

“The attraction of this amount of private sector investment is significant compared to the total budget of the government in the sea and port sectors,” he said.

According to the official, regarding the foreign investment, PMO has signed contracts with five countries including India which has so far invested $120 million in the port sector and $250 million in the rail, roads and infrastructure sector.

Referring to the growth of maritime trade in the country, Safaei continued: “Maritime trade increased from 215 million tons in [the Iranian calendar year] 1401 (2022-2023) to 237 million tons last year (ended on March 19, 2024).”

“In the first quarter of the current year, 60 million tons of maritime trade was recorded, which shows a 10 percent growth compared to the same period last year, and even a 70 percent growth was recorded in some ports of the Caspian Sea,” he added.

MA