TEHRAN (Iran News) Lahouti made the remarks on Tuesday in a press conference, noting that of the total $72 billion in foreign trade, $32.5 billion was attributed to exports and $39.5 billion to imports.

Iran’s exports have seen a 16.5% increase in the last Iranian calendar year (starting on March 20), he said.

The official went on to say that the country’s imports have experienced an 8.8% rise during the said time.

After the UAE, Iran’s largest import partners include China, Turkiye, Germany, and Russia, he noted.

China is considered Iran’s top export destination, he said, adding that Iraq, the UAE, Turkiye, and Afghanistan follow.

Iran’s exports have seen a 16.5% increase in the last Iranian calendar year (starting on March 20), he said.

The official went on to say that the country’s imports have experienced an 8.8% rise during the said time.

After the UAE, Iran’s largest import partners include China, Turkiye, Germany, and Russia, he noted.

China is considered Iran’s top export destination, he said, adding that Iraq, the UAE, Turkiye, and Afghanistan follow.

Iran’s exports have seen a 16.5% increase in the last Iranian calendar year (starting on March 20), he said.

The official went on to say that the country’s imports have experienced an 8.8% rise during the said time.

After the UAE, Iran’s largest import partners include China, Turkiye, Germany, and Russia, he noted.

China is considered Iran’s top export destination, he said, adding that Iraq, the UAE, Turkiye, and Afghanistan follow.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) According to IRICA, the imports hiked since foreign currency was allocated for them.

It added that 25,448 new passenger cars valued at over $ 525.04 million were cleared and imported to Iran from March 20 to October 31.

In the same period last year, 2,999 new passenger cars worth over 60.4 million were imported, the report said.

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Speaking to ILNA, Mohammad Hassan Didehvar refuted some reports regarding the presence of Indian doctors in Iran and said it is just an assumption which has been raised by the Health Ministry due to shortage of educates and even this problem has gripped the knowledge-based companies, and in the near future Iran may be forced to import skillful forces like doctors but currently it is not true.

On Iran’s frozen money in India, Didehvar said that the amount of Iran’s frozen money in India is unknown. Touching upon the amount of the trade exchange between Iran and India, he said that the trade volume of Iran and India in the first 9 months of the year has been around $2.4b and Iran’s non-oil exports account for $1.34b of the total volume, and the remaining amount accounts for Iran’s imports from India. He added that the figure shows that Iran’s exports in the first 9 months have increased by 74% comparing to the same period last year while the value of imports have decreased by 37% and this has helped the trade balance between the two countries to become positive in favor of Iran.

Didehvar went on to say that rice is dominating import of Iran from India which is valued around $220m in 9 months. Black tea and aluminum oxide and green banana are of the major imports of Iran from India, he added.

He said that methanol and ammonia top the list of Iran’s exports to India and iron products, pistachio and steel shit are the other major exports of Iran to India. He expressed hope for the rise in exports to India and said that rice is the major traded goods between the two countries.

On the latest agreements and MoUs between Iran and India, Didehvar said that health ministries of the two countries have reached agreements on medicines and they are to implement them. He added that there are some agreements in the field of energy and the government is trying to reduce the levied tariff by India for Iranians, reiterating some of the agreements are being implemented or they are under study.

On the imports of car from India, he said this is not true because India is too weak in exporting cars, and cars in India are manufactured based on the country’s climate condition especially fuel and metal used in the cars, adding that ultimately Indians may be able to export some parts. He reiterated that in Iran’s car market, the Chinese have been successful and they are working hard to export their products which Iran’s market needs.

On the problem of human capital flight and brain wash, he said that some of the top educates of Iran’s top industry have left the county and some have remained for serving their military services, reiterating that this problem affects all fields of studies like medical or engineering fields.

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Chinese refiners brushed off the risk of the sanctions to take in 324 million barrels from Iran and Venezuela in 2021, about 53% more than the year before, data from market intelligence firm Kpler cited by the news provider showed.

“That’s the most since 2018, when China took 352 million barrels from the two nations,” it added.

According to Braemar and industry consultant Energy Aspects Ltd, Chinese imports of sanctioned crude should stay elevated around current levels early this year.

China’s private refiners are main customers of Iran’s floating oil cargoes through spot purchases. Crude from Iran stored in tankers offshore Asia is an attractive option given that it can be delivered quickly. There are millions of barrels of crude floating off China and around Singapore and Malaysia that include Iranian oil.

Rising crude prices have incentivized the private refiners, known as teapots, to snap up more oil from Iran and Venezuela without worrying about the risk of the sanctions because they don’t have US-based businesses and do not need the American financial system for trade.

Oil markets are closely watching negotiations underway in Vienna between Iran and the remaining parties to an international nuclear agreement for a breakthrough to resume purchases from the country.

Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji has said Iran will return to its pre-sanctions crude production level as soon as the US sanctions are removed. Petroleum ministry officials have said they are confident most output could be restored within a month.

On Sunday, head of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Mohsen Khojastehmehr said the private sector is contributing greatly to the country’s current oil sales.

He said Iran’s oil revenues have increased significantly over the past few months and the country has received the payment for all its crude oil sales since the new government administration.

“In the thirteenth government, part of the country’s lost oil markets has been revived and we have received the payment for all the oil we have sold so far,” Khojastehmehr said.

On Tuesday, a Reuters report said Iran has the chance of more oil swap with Venezuela which is resuming exports of diluted crude oil (DCO) for the first time in nine months.

U.S. trade sanctions imposed on Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA in 2019 had hurt its ability to produce exportable grades from its largest production region, the Orinoco Belt.

The extra heavy oil extracted from the Orinoco Belt has to be diluted with naphtha or condensate for transportation and exports. With international companies eschewing deals with Venezuelan oil, Iran has stepped in and struck swap arrangements with the South American which holds the world’s largest supply of crude oil.

PDVSA has been receiving about 2.1 million barrels per month of condensate, a high-value light oil, in exchange for supplying NIOC with some 3.8 million barrels of its flagship Merey 16 crude.

Reuters on Tuesday cited an internal PDVSA schedule report showing that a Panama-flagged supertanker has loaded about 1.9 million barrels of DCO bound for Malaysia which is sometimes used to trans-ship Venezuelan crude bound for China.

The last time PDVSA had shipped DCO was in April, when it sent two cargoes to Asia, it said.

Shipping DCO to Asia could allow the resumption of the Venezuela-Iran swap, which was mostly fulfilled in the second half of last year before deliveries were paused in December, the news agency added.

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Speaking to ILNA, Seyed Fakhreddin Amerian said that Iran imports over $5b worth of basic goods with the maximum 4 percent tariff levied by Brazil but the country’s exports to Brazil are less than $100m, adding that Brazilian Government gets more than 100 percent tariffs from Iran’s exports to this Latin American state. He noted he has demanded a bill to be approved by Iran’s Majlis to adjust custom tariffs based on the preferential tariff.

The tariff comes from a small number of goods exported from Iran to Brazil, where Iran imports more than 50 to 60 percent of its imports of basic goods from Brazil.

Touching open the inauguration of the office of the joint chamber in Sao Paulo, Amerian said that the office was inaugurated last week in presence representatives of Majlis and an Iranian trade delegation.

He went on to say that Iran imports more than $5 billion worth of basic goods from Brazil, but Tehran’s exports to the country are less than $100 million.

Amerian also noted that the chamber is seeking to clear goods with Brazil as well as to amend the tariff status between the two countries.

He noted that by reducing the custom tariff the trade balance will be much better and logical and Iran can export goods like petrochemicals, gas oil, pistachio, date and raisins that Brazil requires.

He went on to say that Iranian agriculture Minister supports extraterrestrial cultivation by the private sector in Brazil and the ministry gives guarantee to buy the products of from those who invests in cultivation in Brazil. He stated that the minister has also vowed to remove all hurdles in way of trade between the two states.

Amerian also said that some of the slaughtered meat in Brazil is exported to Iran and Brazil has good areas for cultivation of corn and soya that Iranians can cooperate in those fields in Brazil. He reiterated that the main goal behind the formation of this chamber is to boost direct trade between Iran and Brazil and to eliminate the third party countries or middlemen.

He also stated that Iran is in a condition that it can have the most barter trade with countries like Brazil which provides 60 percent of Iran’s basic goods and the joint chamber seeks to materialize it.

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Hadi Tizhoush Taban says although the route for Iran’s exports to Russia is very short and it can be a very important advantage for Iran than other countries like Egypt and Turkey, those countries’ exports to Russia are more than Iran’s. He added that even recently Turkey is working to replace a new route via Armenia for exporting its goods to Russia but still Iran has the shortest routes for exports to Russia.

Explaining the reasons behind Iran’s insignificant share of exports to Russia, he said that one of the reasons is the sanctions and due to sanctions, the banking system for transfer of money has been halted, adding that although Bank Melli Iran’s branch Mir Business in Moscow is active but the cost of transferring money is very high. He added that while the charge of money transfer is less than one percent in the world, it costs around ten percent for trade in Russia and for this reason economic activists do not welcome it. He reiterated that if these problems are resolved, Iran can have good economic relations with Eurasian states.

He also blamed the incomplete infrastructures, saying that Iran does not have suitable transportation fleet yet to carry the products safely. Tizhoush Taban added that lack of training of economic activists regarding exports regulations and being unaware of new routes for exports to other countries are of the main problems of Iran’s exports.

He noted that repatriation of the forex is the other problem for traders and a mechanism is needed forex return of the forex to the country.

He also expressed hope that new grounds for joint cooperation with other countries will be provided by the new government and urged the new government to work for Iran’s permanent membership in the EAEU and other economic blocs.

Tizhush Taban continued to say that Gilan Province has more than 400 years of experience in trade with Russia and said that Iran can reach easily Europe via Russia and the government should provide necessary grounds for this target.

He earlier had said that Iran and Russia traded $805 million worth of goods during the first four months of the current fiscal year (March 21-July 22).

According to Hadi Tizhoush Taban, Iran’s exports to Russia stood at $333 million during the period, registering a 38% growth in terms of value year-on-year.

Nuts and dried fruit, fresh fruit and vegetable, plastic, fibers, iron and steel were the main exported products.

“Part of the 38% rise was due to an increase in foreign exchange rates [against the Iranian rial] as it was partly due to the lightening of problems caused by the coronavirus,” he said.

Imports from Russia stood at $472 million during the same period, registering an 8% decline compared with the corresponding period of last year.

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Some media outlets have claimed that the U.S. Administration has let South Korea sell LG and Samsung products in exchange for Iran’s frozen assets.

But Pouya Firouzi in an interview with ILNA refuted this allegation and said that this report is baseless, adding that after contact with Soul, the chamber learned that the report is baseless because there has not been such an issue.

He added that in the past there were some talks on payment of Iran’s debts to the Korean companies from its frozen assets in Seoul and it dates back to the pre-reimposition of sanctions.

Firouzi reiterated that in case Iran’s assets are released, the country’s priority is not the import of home appliance and import of medical and health commodities are on the top of the list.

He said the chamber has several meetings with Korean officials and they have been informed of Iran’s concerns.

He reiterated that macro decisions like releasing the funds and ways of release will be made through the governments and so far no opening has happened.

Late August, the South Korean ambassador to Tehran said that his country seeks to revive trade relations with Iran, adding that Iran’s dissatisfaction with South Korea’s stance on U.S. sanctions is sensible.

He made the remarks in a meeting with the head of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce in Tehran.

Yun Kang-hyeon pointed to a previous meeting he had held with the former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, saying that the then Iranian president had expressed his frustration with the South Korean stance on the U.S. sanctions against Iran.

He said that the U.S. sanctions against Iran harmed both the Iranian nation in the first place as well as the Korean economy to a lesser extent.

He put the amount of frozen Iranian assets in South Korea at $7 billion, saying that his country is interested in paying back the blocked financial resources to Iran in necessary ways.

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Since mid-February, 20 vaccine consignments have been delivered to the country, which is estimated at 9.4 million doses.

Toshimitsu Motegi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, announced on Tuesday that the Japanese government will donate 2.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Iran through the COVAX facility.

The COVAX Facility is a partnership, co-led by Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi-The Vaccine Alliance, and the World Health Organization (WHO), alongside key delivery partner United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Vaccines imported from several countries, including Russia, India, Italy, and South Korea, have been imported to Iran.

Iran has so far received two batches of vaccines from the COVAX facility. The first shipment, included over 700,000 doses of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by South

Korean firm SK Bioscience, and the second one consisted of 1,452,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by Catalent Anagni of Italy.

In Early-May, the country imported 1 million doses from China, through consultation conducted by the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS).

Iran also has so far taken delivery of nine batches of the Russian “Sputnik V” vaccine, containing 90,000 doses.

While the country continues efforts to mass-produce local candidates, several foreign vaccines have already been imported and others are expected.
Mass vaccination against COVID-19 started on Iranian citizens with Sputnik V on February 9.

The Islamic Republic is currently producing vaccines jointly with three countries of Cuba, Russia, and Australia, which may also be released by September, while two homegrown vaccines have so far received the emergency use license.

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“Up to 650 megawatts (MW) of electricity is currently imported from Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia,” Rajabi Mashhadi wrote on his social media.

The official noted that due to the infrastructure limitations and domestic demands, the mentioned countries are not able to supply the Islamic Republic with more electricity.

He underlined that managing consumption is the best possible option at the moment for preventing blackouts during the summer peak period.

The official called on people and businesses to manage their electricity consumption especially in peak consumption hours of the day.

Earlier this week, Rajabi Mashhadi said that Iran has stopped electricity exports to neighboring countries due to the surge in domestic demand and only 50 MW of electricity is exported to Afghanistan at the moment.

He announced on Tuesday that the country’s power plants are currently able to generate only 54,000 MW of electricity which is nearly 12,000 MW less than the domestic power demand.

Daily electricity consumption in Iran reached 66,250 megawatts (66.25 gigawatts) on Monday, July 5, to register a new record in the history of Iran’s electricity industry as a new heatwave has blanketed the country over the past few days.

The mentioned figure was 8,000 MW more than the consumption in the previous year’s peak period, and 10,000 MW more than the figure in the previous year’s same date.

In the past decade, constant temperature rising and the significant decrease of rainfalls across Iran have put the country in a hard situation regarding electricity supply during peak consumption periods.

This year, however, new deteriorating factors like severe drought and the decline in the country’s water resources as well as a new wave of illegal cryptocurrency mining across the country have also worsened the situation.

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