TEHRAN – Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) plans to entrust the country’s private sector with construction of 92 vessels within the next two years, IRIB reported, quoting an official with the organization.

“We have plans to hold tenders for awarding the construction projects of 92 small and large-scale vessels by the end of the [Iranian calendar] year of 1399 [March 20, 2021], the contracts for building nine of which worth €112 million has already been signed,” PMO’s Director of Supply and Equipment Engineering Farhad Montaser Kouhsari said.

“Negotiations are underway for awarding yet another nine contracts worth €36 million to the private sector,” he added.

According to the official, plans have also been made for holding tenders for construction of 78 large and small coastal service ships and boats worth about €205 million, all of which will be constructed by the end of next year.

Montaser noted that there are no problems regarding the supply of equipment and spare parts in the country’s ports and maritime sector, adding that the private sector has manufactured about 800 items of necessary port, marine and telecommunication equipment, including 260 maritime equipment, 467 port-related equipment items, and 41 telecommunication and electronic equipment worth over 250 billion rials (about $5.9 million).

Back in August, PMO announced that the organization awarded domestic companies the projects for supplying 20 trilling rials (over $476 million) worth of port equipment.

“Most of the contracts for supplying equipment for the country’s ports have been signed with Iranian companies, however still nearly 60 percent of the mentioned equipment cannot be made inside the country and we need to import them,” Montaser Kouhsari said.

The official went on saying that considering the country’s huge potentials in this area and having great experts and workforce in the industry, the U.S. sanctions won’t be a permanent hurdle in the way of the country’s growth.

EF/MA