TEHRAN- Commodities valued at $4.2 billion were exported from Khuzestan province in the southwest of Iran during the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-September 22), a provincial official announced.

Hamidreza Fallah, the acting head of the province’s Industry, Mining and Trade Department, said that petrochemicals accounted for the lion’s share (58 percent) of the province’s non-oil export in the mentioned six-month period.

Steel accounted for 13 percent, agricultural products for 13 percent, constructional materials for 11 percent, industrial products for three percent, and handicrafts for one percent of the non-oil exports from the province in the first half of the present year, the official added.

The data released by Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) showed that the value of Iran’s non-oil export rose 13.3 percent during the first half of the present year, as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

Based on an IRICA report, the country’s six-month non-oil exports stood at 51.783 million tons valued at $24.251 billion, with a 12.5-percent decline in weight.

Liquefied propane, methanol, liquefied butane, liquefied natural gas and film grade polyethylene were the main exported products in the said time span, accounting for 25.6 percent of the total value of the exports.

Major export destinations of the Iranian non-oil goods were China with $7.842 billion of imports, Iraq with $3.382 billion, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with $3.112 billion, Turkey with $2.626 billion, and India with $904 million.

According to IRICA data, the Islamic Republic has also imported 16.32 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $26.31 billion in the first six months of the present year, with a 13.15-percent growth in value and a 14.72-percent decrease in weight, year on year.

The first five items of goods imported into the country in the first half of this year include rice, wheat, maize, soybeans and mobile phones. The mentioned items accounted for 20.63 percent of the total import value during this period.

The United Arab Emirates with $7.206 billion was the top exporter to Iran in the said period, followed by China with $6.846 billion, Turkey with $2.680 billion, India with $1.380 billion, and Russia with $876 million worth of exports.

Reportedly, the value of Iran’s non-oil trade rose 13.2 percent during the first six months of the present year, as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

Iran traded 68.103 million tons of non-oil products worth $50.282 billion with other countries in the mentioned period.

MA/MA