No Ship Carrying Grain Held Up Outside Ports Over Payment
IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK
Iranian authorities have rejected reports suggesting that ships carrying imports of food and grain have been stuck outside two main ports in southern Iran simply because American sanctions on the country are creating payment problems.
A senior government official in the southern Iranian province of Khuzestan confirmed on Thursday that ships carrying basic goods were waiting for discharge outside Imam Khomeini Port, Iran’s main port for goods, but he insisted they had been stuck because of increased import activity at the port.
The comments came after the Reuters news agency claimed in a report that at least 20 dry bulk ships carrying around one million tons of grains were waiting outside Imam Khomeini Port for unloading. It said other vessels had waited for weeks for their cargoes to be processed in the port and in Bandar Abbas, another major cargo port on the Persian Gulf.
Iran says cargo handling at Iranian ports has surged despite sanctions imposed on the country.
However, the government source ruled out payment issues and said that the ships remained anchored mainly because there have been changes to Iran’s import polices as the country seeks to increase inventories of basic goods and foods to cope with the sanctions.
“Assume that storage capacity in this port has been nearly three million tons but currently around six million tons of basic goods have entered this port,” the official told semi-official Tasnim news agency, adding, “It is obvious that some ships should wait for discharge.”
Iranian authorities said in August that imports for basic goods and foodstuffs have significantly increased this year amid efforts to offset the impacts of the American sanctions.
On Thursday, Reuters reported more than 20 ships carrying around one million tons of grain are stuck outside two ports in Iran as United States sanctions create payment problems and hamper the country’s efforts to import vital commodities.(No Ship Carrying Grain Held Up Outside Ports Over Payment)
Trading companies such as Bunge and China’s COFCO International have been hit by payment delays and additional costs of up to $15,000 a day as the renewed US restrictions stifle the processing of transactions, trade sources said.
Food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies are exempt from sanctions Washington reimposed after US President Donald Trump said he was walking away from a 2015 international deal over Iran’s nuclear program.
But the measures targeting everything from oil sales to shipping and financial activities have deterred several foreign banks from doing any Iranian business, including humanitarian deals such as food shipments.
The few remaining lenders still processing Iranian business face multiple hurdles to facilitate payments, as financing channels freeze up.
Six Western and Iranian sources said the situation was contributing to the cargoes being held up for more than a month outside Iran’s biggest ports for goods, at opposite ends of the Gulf in the Middle East: Bandar Imam Khomeini and Bandar Abbas.
The ships are carrying cargoes including soya beans and corn, mostly from South America, the sources said. The grain vessels are also visible through ship tracking data.
“There are no restrictions on humanitarian business, but you can’t get paid for it,” one European source said. “You can be waiting for months to get a payment.”
Another source said: “There is nervousness among traders about making more sales to Iran before the backlog [of ships] is cleared”.
A senior Iranian port official who declined to be named told Reuters there have been problems since U.S. sanctions were imposed on its financial system in November 2018.
“What has changed is that now the number of banks, traders that are staying away from doing business with Iran is increasing,” the official said.
