TEHRAN, Jun. 25 (MNA) – An official has announced that half of Iranian petrochemicals are deployed to China turning the East Asian country into the largest market for Iran’s petrochemical industry.


Fariborz Karimaei, Deputy Head of the Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporation, said Iran’s petrochemical production has increased from 40.5 million tons in 2013 to 46.5 million tons in 2015 while estimations indicate that the current year’s production will hit 50 million tons.

The official emphasized that Iran’s petchem exports was 18.8 million tons in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 20); “during the past five years, changes have taken place in trends of Iran’s petrochemical exports to different markets.”

Karimaei recalled that Europe possessed 11 percent of Iran’s petchem market before sanction years while the figure for Europe as well as for Japan and South Korea dropped significantly after the international sanctions were imposed against the country.

“Meanwhile, exports to China have risen substantially over the past few years climbing from about 19 to a record high of 39 percent during the sanction years and 57 percent in the previous year,” he added.

The official outlined the African market as a neglected one concluding “approaching Africa marks a very good decision due to being a huge market with high demands on the part of developing countries.”

By Mehr News Agency