India, Afghanistan, Russia, Iraq, Qatar, Kenya, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China, and Oman were the main importers of Iranian cement during the said period, reported globalcement.com on Monday.

Iran’s annual cement production stands at 85 million tons, and the domestic need for the product stands at 65 million tons.

The country is among the seven large producers of cement in the world.

Iran exported about $7 billion worth of construction materials in the previous Iranian year (ending March 19).

As recently announced by the acting minister of industry, mine and trade, the production of major items in the construction industry is more than double the country’s demand for such commodities.

“In this area [the construction industry], not only do we not have any worries about the supply of raw materials, but in important items of this industry, such as steel, cement, and ceramic tiles, our production is almost double the country’s needs,” Jafar Sarqeini noted.

“Today, our country is one of the major exporters of steel in the region and a major exporter of cement in the world,” the official noted, adding that Iran has increased its supply of glass, tile and ceramics to foreign customers in recent years.

Iran’s massive mining and metals sector has expanded in recent years, mainly because the US sanctions on the oil industry have led to greater focus on other sectors.

The government has also raised tariffs on exports of raw minerals as it seeks increased local production of products with more added-value.

That comes despite a decision by Washington in May 2019 to introduce a series of comprehensive bans on Iran’s trade of metals.

However, the bans have largely failed to disrupt the outflow of Iranian products like steel and copper, as customers find them increasingly competitive compared to regional and international rivals.

A senior official at Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade said that zero-rated duty on potato export will be effective until further notice, reported Press TV.

Mohammadreza Kalami, who serves as head of the ministry’s domestic trade department, said that a current oversupply of potato is expected to increase as harvesting season for the crop normally ends in Iran November.

Kalami said the government would consider a delay for return of proceedings gained from exports to further incentivize potato exporters.

He said removing the duty on exports had come in response to a request by potato exporters in Iran.

However, reports in recent days had suggested that farmers and exporters where demanding the Trade Ministry to halve its fixed base price for potato exports to $100 per ton.

It also comes as agricultural authorities in key potato-growing provinces, including in Hamedan in the west and in Ardabil in northwest Iran, had warned they were running out of storage space for surplus potato production.

Iran ranked 13th in the world last year in terms of the volume of potato produced as total output reached over 5.1 million tons from 160,000 hectares of lands, according to figures by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The output of the staple crop is expected to grow in the upcoming years as farmers are using modern cultivation and irrigation technologies to increase production to nearly 70 tons per hectare.

Iran’s potato exports are mainly aimed at neighboring countries, including to Russia, Azerbaijan and Iraq.

“The Import of basic goods through Chabahar has increased by 330 percent,” Behrouz Aqaei said, adding that the port’s unique incentives to importers and exporters, as well as shipping lines, have attracted investors toward Chabahar port, IRNA reported.

“The strategic location of Chabahar has encouraged Iranian and foreign investors to use it for transport of goods,” he added.

The official said that the highest import of basic goods pertained to wheat, with 479,000 tons.

He said that Chabahar offers a 30 percent discount for terminal handling charges (THC) for loading and unloading, and a 50 percent discount for foreign transit containers, which is just a part of the port incentives.

Chabahar also offers an 87 percent tariff-cut for storage costs of transit containers and a 75 percent discount for storage costs of imported goods containers, also empty containers to load exported or transit goods have a three-month long exemption from storage costs, the PMO managing director said.

Aqaei said last week that India’s eighth wheat cargo for Afghanistan has berthed at Chabahar’s Shahid Beheshti Port.

“The eighth vessel carrying 351 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) loaded with 8,097 tons of wheat has arrived in the strategic Iranian port,” the official said on September 5.

“The shipment is part of a total gift of 75,000 tons from India to Afghanistan,” the official added.

Aqaei noted that the Iranian port has handled over 53,000 tons of India’s wheat bound for Afghanistan since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 20).

The strategic port of Chabahar is the only oceanic port on the Makran coast in southeastern Iran and has a special status in the country’s economic affairs.

Chabahar has two separate ports named Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti, each having five berths.

Iran has handed over the development project of this port to India, which has allocated $500 million to build two new berths.

India has doubled the fund allocated for the development of the port in its national budget bill for 2020.

According to the statement, in the same period last year, the value of exports amounted to $4.3 million, azernews.az reported.

The reason for this increase is the construction and commissioning of the railway between Iran and Azerbaijan. Thus, after the launch of the Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan) line, the Iranian provinces of Gilan, Golestan, Mazandaran, Ardebil, and East Azarbaijan were able to export more products to Russia.

Presently, cargoes from the northern provinces of Iran are delivered by truck to Astara, where they are loaded in the wagons and sent to Russia through Azerbaijan.

The Astara-Astara railway is an extension of the Qazvin-Rasht railway, which is a key segment of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).

Earlier on July 10, Iran inaugurated its Chabahar-Zahedan railway line to transport cargo to Europe through Azerbaijan via Qazvin-Rasht-Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan) railway.

The construction of this railway has important advantages, as the port of Chabahar and the national railway system are located there.

The Persian Gulf countries will use the port of Badar Abbas and Southeast Asian countries will use the port of Chabahar to trade with Europe through the INSTC.

The railway connecting the Azerbaijani and Iranian cities of Astara has already been put into operation as Azerbaijan’s infrastructure is ready to receive and send large volumes of cargo.

In addition, Azerbaijan has completed the construction of the Baku-Astara highway, as well as the Alat international sea trade port, leading to cargo transshipment increase.

Presently, the Qazvin-Rasht section of the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway is in operation. Work is underway on the section of the Rasht-Astara railway.

After its completion, the Chabahar-Zahedan railway, along with the Rasht-Astara railway will secure Azerbaijan’s position as an international transport hub.

Iran’s gas exports to neighboring countries had never reached 70 million cubic meters per day, Shana quoted Mohammadreza Joolaei as saying.

The official put at 75 mcm the average figure for Iran’s current daily gas exports to Iraq and Turkey.

Joolaei said this record was set at a time when electricity consumption was (and still is) at its peak in Iran in summer and most of the country’s gas refineries have been undergoing annual overhaul.

Although consumption by the country’s power plants has also been at its peak over the past few weeks, gas has been fully supplied to them, eliminating the need to use liquid fuels, he added.

The official said Iran currently exports natural gas to Iraq and Turkey and is ready to provide any amount requested by the importers.

In June, NIGC Managing Director Hassan Montazer-Torbati announced that Iran’s annual natural gas exports to the neighboring countries increased by 3.6 billion cubic meters in the previous calendar year (which ended on March 19), registering a 26 percent rise year-on-year.

Commenting on the domestic gas industry’s new records in production, transmission, distribution and exports during the previous year, Montazer-Torbati said the unprecedented increase in the country’s natural gas exports was achieved despite the significant rise in domestic consumption.

In May, he said Iran’s long-term gas contracts would probably undergo essential changes in the aftermath of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The official said that Iran would introduce new pricing mechanisms in its gas export deals in the future, without elaborating on how they would work.