TEHRAN- Nearly 600,000 tons of commodities worth over $365 million traded at Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) during the past Iranian calendar week (ended on Friday).

As reported by the IME’s Public Relations and International Affairs Department, the exchange traded 254,266 tons of commodities worth more than $174 million on its mineral and industrial trading floor in the past week.

IME's customers purchased on this floor, 169,756 tons of steel, 4,660 tons of copper, 3,240 tons of aluminum, 120 tons of molybdenum concentrate, 30 tons of precious metals concentrate, 45,000 tons of iron ore concentrate and pellets, 21,460 tons of zinc dust and 10,000 tons of sponge iron (DRI).

The next trading floor was the oil and petrochemical, on which the exchange saw trade of 342, 779 tons of commodities valued at more than $191 million.

Products sold here included 116,500 tons of vacuum bottom, 64,929 tons of bitumen, 82,154 tons of polymeric products, 39,356 tons of chemicals, 39,500 tons of lube cut, 2,156 tons of base oil and 1,890 tons of sulfur.

Moreover, the IME hosted trade of 682 tons of commodities on its side market.

As previously reported, the value of trades at Iran Mercantile Exchange rose 16 percent in the past Iranian calendar month (ended on May 21).

As reported by the IME’s Public Relations and International Affairs Department, 2.925 million tons of commodities valued at $1.828 billion were traded at the exchange in the previous month, indicating also a six-percent rise in terms of weight.

The IME witnessed trades of 1.464 million tons of commodities worth more than $1.044 billion on its mineral and industrial trading floor.

On this floor the exchange traded 1.189 million tons of steel, 12,780 tons of copper, 480 tons of molybdenum concentrate, 48 tons of precious metals concentrate, 11,690 tons of aluminum, 239,000 tons of iron ore, 1,000 tons of zinc, 400 tons of coke, 10,000 tons of sponge iron and 250 tons of lead.

The other trading floor of the exchange was the oil and petrochemical on both domestic and export rings of which customers purchased more than 1.449 million tons of commodities valued at almost $770 million.

Commodities traded on this floor were 412,630 tons of bitumen, 238,686 tons of polymeric products, 155,372 tons of chemicals, 12,238 tons of oil, 490,300 tons of vacuum bottom, 4,450 tons of sulfur, 350 tons of argon, 150 tons of insulation and 132,500 tons of lube cut.

Moreover, the IME saw trade of 11,505 tons of commodities on its side market within this month.

The value of trades at Iran Mercantile Exchange in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) rose 108 percent compared to the preceding year.

During the past year, about 3.5 quadrillion rials (about $83.5 billion) worth of commodities were traded at the mentioned market.

In the past year, several new records were achieved in terms of the volume and value of transactions in the mentioned market’s various floors including the industrial, petroleum, and petrochemical floors.

IME is one of the four major stock markets of Iran, the other three markets are Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), Iran's over-the-counter (OTC) market known also as Iran Fara Bourse (IFB), and Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX).

MA/MA