TEHRAN- Transit of commodities through the ports of Iran has increased by 37 percent in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20), the head of the country’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) announced.

Speaking in a TV program, Ali-Akbar Safaei stated that 9.366 million tons of goods have been transited via Iranian ports during the eight-month period.

Iran is one of the countries with a special status in trade and transit relations due to its strategic location and special geography, as the country is the passage of several important international corridors.

Considering its geographical location, Iran can play a significant role in the transit of goods in the region and benefit a lot from its status in this due.

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.

On July 10, 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.

He 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,” the official added.

According to the PMO head, regarding foreign investment, the organization 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 sectors.

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