TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Company (PGPIC) says domestic companies are capable of manufacturing up to 80 percent of the equipment needed in the country’s petrochemical industry, Tasnim reported on Monday.

Speaking on the sidelines of an exhibition and conference on promoting domestic production in petrochemical industry in the southern Kish Island, Jafar Rabiei said: “If we can indigenize and supply 85 to 90 percent of the petrochemical industry's demand for equipment by domestic companies, then we can say that we have reached a desirable point.”

According to the official, petrochemical companies deliver up to $5.5 billion of raw materials to downstream industries annually, and this figure can be increased even more by capacity building in the downstream sector.

Rabiei further noted that the country’s petrochemical industry needs $40 billion in the next 10 years to complete semi-finished projects.

Emphasizing that the country’s liquidity has exceeded 20 quadrillion rials (about $476 billion), he said: “if we could attract part of this liquidity into the petrochemical industry, it would be an effective step in securing part of the petrochemical industry's financial needs because this industry is very profitable and can capitalize by attracting investment and expanding its assets.

Nowadays, the petrochemical industry is playing a crucial role in Iran's non-oil economy. According to official data, petrochemical exports constitute the second-largest hard currency earner in Iran after crude oil. Petrochemical exports already make up nearly 33 percent of the country’s non-oil exports.

Iranian Oil Ministry and the country’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) have been taking major steps to facilitate further development of this industry in recent years.

Iran's annual petrochemical output, which is currently at 65 million tons, is planned to reach more than 100 million tons by the Iranian calendar year of 1400 (ends on March 2022) and to 130 million tons or nearly doubled) by 1404 (ends on March 2026).

EF/MA