Based on the MoU which was signed by PBO’s Deputy Head Hamid Pour-Mohammadi and the managing directors of Bank Keshavarzi, Bank Mellat, and the Export Development Bank of Iran, about $238.09 million will be allocated for supporting the development of the saffron industry and its exports, IRNA reported.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Pour-Mohammadi noted that the mentioned funding will be provided to saffron producers and processors in the form of bank facilities to support the production of saffron and the packing and processing of this product, which has been impacted by the outbreak of the coronavirus.

According to the official, the interest rate of the mentioned facilities would be 18 percent, of which PBO has agreed to pay three percent.

According to official figures, Iran exported 12,320 kilograms of saffron valued at $11.2 million to 32 countries during the previous Iranian year (ending March 19), said the president of the University of Torbat-e Heydarieh (northeastern Iranian province of Khorasan Razavi) and its Saffron Research Institute.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Iran Daily in May, Mohammad-Hassan Fat’hi-Nasri added that of this figure, 9,500 kilograms, worth $10.3 million, were exported from the Customs Department of the northeastern city of Mashhad to 25 countries.

He noted that, in other words, during this period, saffron exports from Mashhad’s customs accounted for 77 percent and 92 percent of the country’s total overseas sales of the same product in terms of weight and value, respectively.

The UAE was Iran’s biggest export destination, having imported 4,200 kilograms (34 percent of the total weight of the overseas sales) of saffron, valued at $4.6 million (41 percent of total value), followed by Spain and Afghanistan, Fat’hi-Nasri added.

According to figures released by the World Steel Association (WSA) on Monday, Iran produced 2.3 million tons of crude steel in July, showing a 14.3 percent increase compared to the figure for the same month of 2019, which was 2.04 million tons.

China topped the list of crude steel producers in the same seven-month period, with an output of 93.3 million tons while Iran ranked 10th.

Standing second to ninth in this list were, respectively, India (7.15 million tons), Japan (6.04 million tons), Russia (5.8 million tons), South Korea (5.5 million tons), the US (5.2 million tons), Turkey (3.1 million tons), Brazil (2.5 million tons) and Germany (2.4 million tons), the report said.

Global steel production in July amounted to 152.69 million tons, showing a 2.54 percent decrease compared to the figure for the same month of 2019, which was 156.67 million tons.

Iran produced 31.9 million tons of crude steel in 2019, according to the WSA figures released in January.

The country plans to increase its annual steel production capacity to 55 million tons by 2025, with exports expected to reach between 10 million tons and 15 million tons per year.

The WSA is one of the largest and most dynamic industry associations in the world. Its members represent approximately 85 percent of the world’s steel producers, including over 150 steel producers, with nine of the 10 largest steel companies, national and regional steel industry associations and steel research institutes.

 

“Every one billion liters of gas oil product is worth $500 million in the international market,” said NIGC Managing Director Hassan Montazer Torbati, adding, “With an increase of two bcm in the supply of gas to power plants, we have seen $1 billion from exports of the product,” reported Press TV.

Torbati did not elaborate on further details, including to which country Iran had supplied its surplus gas oil.

However, reports in recent months have suggested that gas oil exports has become a major source of earning hard currency for Iran, a country that has seen its direct sale of crude reduced under a series of US sanctions.

Torbati said the total gas supplied to Iranian power plants in the first four months of the current calendar year amounted to 26 bcm, or 210 million cubic meters a day. That is nearly a fourth of current daily output of natural gas in the country.

Iran plans to reach a natural gas output target of one bcm per day by the end of the current administrative government in August 2021.

Electricity generation has seen a huge boost mainly because of the stable supply of natural gas to Iranian power plants where the use of the so-called combined-cycle systems, in which the exhaust heat from firing gas in combustion turbines is returned to the production cycle, has become more prevalent in recent years.

The head of Iran Fisheries Organization said that the annual output of various fishery products in the country is expected to reach 1.5 million tons by late March 2021, Press TV reported.

Last year, Iran produced 13,000 tons of fishery products, according to IRNA.

Nabiollah Khunmirzaei said Iranian aquaculture sector is expected to further expand this year as the government imposes additional bans on marine fishing while introducing incentives to encourage fish farming across the country.

“This year, aquaculture in the country will outdo marine fishing for the first time and this trend will continue in the coming years due to investments in [domestic] aquaculture sector,” he noted, adding Iran’s annual aquaculture production is to reach a total of 800,000 tons by late March 2021.

Over the past years, Iran, a country with 12,000 square kilometers of water surface, has seen a surge in fishery production and exports.

Official figures show that Iran’s aquaculture output more than doubled in three years to reach nearly 650,000 tons in the year to March 2019.

In the same year, a total of 650,000 tons of aquatic animals were caught in the countries northern and southern waters, noted the organization’s head.

Domestic demand for seafood keeps increasing, said Khunmirzaei, adding Iranians are consuming an average of 15 kilograms of seafood products each year, up from 12 kilograms in 2018.

Iran also views increased exports of aquaculture products as a stable source of income at the time the country’s access to foreign currency revenues remains tight because of American sanctions targeting its overseas sales of oil.

Among the Iranian aquatic animals that are becoming increasingly popular in foreign markets are rainbow trout, caviar and various species of shrimp.

Steel production volume in the first quarter of the current Iranian year hit 7.1 million tons, showing a three percent growth compared to the last year’s corresponding period, reported Mehr News Agency.

Based on ISPA statistics, a sum of 837,000 tons of billets and blooms were exported from the country in the three-month period, accounting for 83 percent export share of total steel ingots, ISPA added.

According to recent figures released by the World Steel Association (WSA) on June 22, Iranian steelmakers produced 11.44 million tons of crude steel during the first five months of 2020, marking an 11.1 percent rise compared to the corresponding figure for 2019, which was 10.29 million tons.

Iran cast 2.35 million tons of crude steel in May, showing an 8.9 percent increase compared to the figure for the same month of 2019, which was 2.16 million tons.

Iran produced 31.9 million tons of crude steel in 2019, according to figures released by WSA in January.

Under the Islamic Republic’s Vision Plan, the country’s total steel production capacity is to hit 55 million tons a year by 2025, with export figures expected to reach 10-15 million tons.

“Conditions governing long-term gas export contracts would probably undergo essential change after corona (virus),” said Hossein Montazer Torbati, the deputy oil minister of Iran, who heads the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Press TV reported.

The comments come after reports in recent days suggested that Turkey, the main customer of Iran’s natural gas, is unwilling to repair a pipeline damaged in an explosion in late March as it seeks lower prices in the light of a recent fall in international crude prices.

Gas export deals designate oil prices as a benchmark for determining gas prices although any price change would need at least six months to take effect.

Montazer told the semiofficial ILNA news agency that Iran would introduce new pricing mechanisms in gas export deals in the future, without elaborating on how they would work.

He said Iran would also start negotiating with Turkey about an extension to the current gas export deal beyond 2025.

The NIGC chief said Iran would always remain a reliable supplier of natural gas to Turkey despite changes that are taking place in the country’s energy market where the government is allowing more activity for the private sector suppliers.

On Iran’s plans for gas exports to new regions and countries, Montazer Torbati said Tehran is studying plans to deliver gas to areas bordering Iran in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan in neighboring Iraq.

The official said authorities in the Iraqi Kurdistan have submitted several requests for starting gas supply from Iran to the bordering regions.

He also said that the Iranian Oil Ministry’s Department for International Affairs is currently working on a contract for launching gas exports to Oman.