TEHRAN – Iranian industry, mining and trade minister said Iran is planning to build 200 cargo ships inside the country based on its maritime development program, Tasnim news agency reported.

“In the country’s maritime industries development program, we have provisioned the construction of 200 cargo ships with an investment of €300 million,” Reza Rahmani said.

According to the official, aside from strengthening the country’s maritime industries, construction of these vessels would create 60,000 direct job opportunities while providing 100,000 indirect jobs.

The minister noted that designing, manufacturing, transporting and installing all kinds of offshore structures by domestic experts is an important achievement for Iran’s maritime industry.

“Currently at Sadra Shipyard, vessels with over 10,000 tons of capacity are being manufactured by Iranian experts and engineers”, he announced. 

Mentioning the fact that shipbuilding is one of the industries that has been neglected in Iran, he added that in the past, over 90 percent of Iranian ships went to the Persian Gulf counties for services and repairs, but now more than 80 percent of such activities are being done inside the country. 

“We have banned ship repairs abroad,” he stressed.

Back in June, Iranian technicians managed to repair a giant oil tanker inside the country for the first time in the history of Iran’s shipping industry.

According to the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) office of public relations, the 320,000-ton supertanker (called Dore) was successfully dry-docked in Bandar Abbas at Iran Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries Complex (ISOICO) in late June.

It was the first time that repair and maintenance services of a super oil vessel was assigned to a domestic repair yard.

In the same month, Nasrollah Sardashti, the managing director of NITC, had announced that renovation of the tanker fleet was a priority and the infrastructure was being prepared for building super tankers inside the country based on international standards.

EF/MA