Iran official: copper export doubled last year

reporter 1222 — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 06:37:36 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – An official said Iran witnessed its copper exports doubled, year-on-year, in the previous calendar year, ending March 19, despite a series of bitter sanctions imposed by the US aimed at hampering the Islamic Republic’s trade of lucrative metals.

A senior official at IMIDRO, largest metals, and mining holding of Iran, said on Sunday that the value of exports for main copper products reached more than $1 billion over the past year, Press TV wrote.

Mohammad Aqajanlou said that the total sales of the National Iranian Copper Industry Company (NICICO) topped 220 trillion rials, nearly $1.5 billion, a milestone in the 48-year-history of the company.

Aqajanlou added that total turnover for the Iranian copper industry exceeded $4.5 billion over the past year and the NICICO posted a return on investment of 143 percent.

He said another historic achievement for the copper smelters in Iran was to reach a total output of 1.18 million metric tons of concentrate last year while production for copper cathode reached an all-time high of 250,130 tons.

He said that copper cathode accounted for more than two-thirds of total domestic consumption for purified copper which was over 160,000 tons over the past year.

That means that copper concentrate, a relatively raw form of the metal, accounted for a bulk of Iran’s exports, an issue which has faced criticism with many believing the NICICO should create more capacity for using copper concentrate inside Iran rather than shipping it in large quantities to countries like China.

Aqajanlou rejected the criticism, saying the current supply and demand situation in the Iranian copper industry makes exports of concentrates more preferable.

Some experts also believe that rising exports for raw copper at a time of increased American bans on Iran’s trade of lucrative metals could also help the government access new hard currency resources.

The US imposed its extensive sanctions on Iran’s metals industry in May 2019, exactly a year after it withdrew from an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and prepared its tough sanctions on the country’s sale of crude oil.

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Metals exports to China surge by %150

reporter 1222 — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 09:05:40 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – New evidence suggests that Iran’s exports of various metals and mining products to China have significantly increased this year amid government efforts to broaden its access to new sources of hard currency at a time of increased American pressure on the oil industry.

Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade (MIMT) said in a report published on Sunday that exports to China of major metals had reached a total of $1.568 billion in value terms between late March and late October this year, a surge of 150 percent compared to the same period in 2018.

It said the top items on the list of exports to China included iron ore and concentrates on $673 million, copper cathode on $408 million, steel ingot on $207 million, copper ore and concentrates on $127 million and zinc ingot on $57 million.

The report said that the total value of exports of metals and mining products from Iran to various countries in the seven-month period ending on October 22, 2019, had stood at $4.631 billion, an increase of 6.16 percent year-on-year.

Iraq trailed China in the list of Iran’s major export destinations followed by Indonesia, Thailand, and Turkey, said the MIMT, adding that countries like Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Pakistan and Ghana had imported more than $100 million worth of Iranian metals and mining products over the seven-month period.

The value of shipments to Indonesia and Pakistan saw significant increases of 135 and 396 percent, respectively, while Turkey imported 13 percent more metals from Iran over the period, said the report.

The data are the latest to come from a series of reports suggesting that Iran’s trade of metals is thriving despite a series of American sanctions that have specifically targeted the metals and mining sector since earlier this year.

The bans on Iran’s trade of metals were enacted in May, exactly a year after the United States withdrew from a major international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and began imposing various economic sanctions on the country.

Experts believe the sanctions have largely failed to halt Iran’s lucrative business of metals as it has become increasingly difficult for the US to identify and target the shipments that are mostly exported via the third countries.

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Iran official: copper export doubled last year

Metals exports to China surge by %150