TEHRAN – Some 213.692 million tons of commodities have been loaded and unloaded at Iranian ports in the first 11 months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21.2023-February 19, 2024), According to a report by the Transport and Urban Development Ministry.

Based on the data released by the country’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO), of the mentioned figure, 72,719,081 tons were related to unloading, and 140,973,052 tons were related to loading.

The loading of goods in the mentioned period increased by 14 percent as compared to the figure for the previous year’s same 11 months.

During the said period, loading and unloading operations in the container sector reached 2,415,010 TEUs, which was three percent more than the figure in the first 11 months of the past year.

While Iran is combating the U.S. unilateral sanctions on its economy, the country’s ports as the major gates of exports and imports play a significant role in this battle. This role makes all-out support to ports and more development of them serious and vital.

Such necessity has led the government to define projects for more development of the ports and also take some measures to encourage investment making in ports, in addition to facilitating the loading and unloading of goods, especially basic commodities, there.

It is worth mentioning that Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization has defined a high number of projects to develop and improve the country’s ports, as the country aims to double the capacity of its ports in five years.

According to the PMO, the capacity of the country's ports has increased from 180 million tons in the Iranian calendar year 1392 (ended in March 2014) to 250 million tons in 1399 (ended in March 2021).

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