TEHRAN (Iran News) According to Rastad, the drop in traffic was primarily due to sanctions, which forced Iranian cargo to be routed through intermediary ports like Jebel Ali in the UAE. These transshipment processes involved unloading cargo, transferring it to other containers, and reloading it onto different ships, significantly increasing both time and cost for exporters, importers, and end consumers.

“If sanctions are lifted and foreign liners can resume direct services to Iranian ports, we could make full use of our existing infrastructure,” he said. Iran currently has a container handling capacity of 8 million TEUs, but has been utilizing less than 3 million TEUs.

Rastad noted that allowing foreign shipping lines to operate freely would not only fill the underutilized capacity but also boost value-added activities at terminals, stimulate economic growth, and increase employment. He added that, without restrictions, major Iranian ports like Shahid Rajaee could become regional hubs, serving as transit points for cargo headed to smaller neighboring countries.

He stressed that lifting sanctions would eliminate the added costs currently imposed by third-party transshipment through the UAE. However, he acknowledged that established ports like Jebel Ali, with a throughput of over 13 million TEUs, have a strong foothold in the region, and Iran still faces a challenging path to becoming a competitive hub.

“To become a central port, every regional hub uses strategic policies to increase competitiveness, including reducing transshipment costs to attract more cargo and vessels,” Rastad said.

Referring to the brief resurgence of international interest during the JCPOA period, he highlighted that 17 foreign liner companies resumed operations in Iran during that time. He expressed optimism that a similar return is possible if sanctions are lifted again.

“There’s no doubt that with the removal of sanctions, we will see increased port traffic. Iran has a large, attractive market and is surrounded by landlocked countries that could benefit from using our ports for imports and exports,” he said, pointing out that both Shahid Rajaee and Chabahar ports could become key destinations for global liners.

When asked whether Iranian vessels would still be limited to government-controlled Chinese and Indian ports, Rastad responded: “As long as we’re not under sanctions, Iranian and foreign ships transporting Iranian cargo will face no restrictions in choosing the most suitable ports. They will opt for the closest and most efficient options.”

In conclusion, Rastad reiterated that while the drop in port activity was stark after JCPOA, broader political and market dynamics also play a significant role in shaping foreign trade. “If transportation is no longer restricted, it will serve as a major factor in strengthening trade performance,” he said.

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Based on the provided data, IRISL has climbed one place from 15th in the entity’s list for the previous year. The IRISL’s capacity now takes up 0.6 percent of the world’s total shipping capacity.

The Alphaliner Top 100 is the ranking of the largest container or liner operators in terms of global capacity, taking into account the fleets of virtually all of the container operators worldwide.

In 2018, IRISL stood at the 19th place in Alphaliner’s Top 100 ranking, while the company held 22nd place in its preceding year.

According to IRISL Head Mohammadreza Modares Khiabani, IRISL currently has 150 active vessels, of which 32 are bulk carriers, 30 are container vessels, 22 are cargo carriers of general goods, 18 are service and passenger vessels, two are roll-on/roll-off, and three barges.

This year, the world’s largest container shipping company, the Danish Maersk has slid to the second place in the list of the world’s top 100 container/liner operators giving the first place to Swiss-Italian Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).

Geneva-based MSC held second place in the previous year’s ranking.  Based on Alphaliner’s latest data, the company now owns 645 ships with a total container capacity of 4,284,728 TEU.

French container transportation and shipping company CMA CGM S.A. is ranked third with a total capacity of 3,182,157 TEU.

With 479 vessels and a total capacity of 2,932,779 TEU, the Chinese state-owned China Ocean Shipping Company, known as COSCO or COSCO Group is ranked as the world’s fourth-biggest shipping company.

Back in October 2021, Modares Khiabani had said that maritime transportation conducted by the IRISL fleet in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-August 22, 2021) increased by 43 percent compared to the previous year’s same period.

“During the first five months of the current year, the revenue from foreign maritime transportation reached about $431 million to register a 100-percent growth compared to the same period of the previous year,” he said at the IRISL’s annual general assembly on October 10, 2021.

The official stated that sanctions restrictions along with the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic had a negative impact on the country’s shipping performance during the previous Iranian calendar year.

He described the sanctions as a debilitating factor in the way of IRISL activities, saying that “sanctions have made it difficult for us to supply parts for the vessels and also have significantly increased insurance costs.”

“IRISL has conducted 21 percent of the country’s total maritime transport this year, and fortunately, during these five months, not only the shipping performance of the IRISL has improved compared to the previous year, but also the situation of the group (IRISL) has improved much compared to [the Iranian calendar year] 1398 (ended in March 2020),” he said.

According to the official, the share of IRISL in the country’s total maritime transportation was 18 percent in the previous Iranian calendar year.

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Passengers can go on four to five-day tours paying $200 to $500, he said, the tours take 12 hours to 20 hours depending on weather conditions and the speed of the ships.

Iran has recently established or reactivated a number of sea travel routes, which is expected to lend a hand to the tourism sector that has fallen victim to a foreign currency crisis caused by sanctions.

As unilateral US sanctions against Iran snapped back, pressuring the country’s limited foreign currency reserves, the Islamic Republic is increasingly paying attention to marine travel as a major way of boosting its underdeveloped tourism sector.

As Arjmandzadeh announced previously, since sea travels in the Bushehr Province had been limited to nearby Iranian Kharg Island in recent years, authorities have planned to expand the route, and also take passengers to ports in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in future.

The post Bushehr-Doha marine passenger line operational: PMO official appeared first on Iran News Daily.

The official added that the person replacing Saeedi as the new managing director of the IRISL Group will be named today.

Mohammad Saeedi had been serving as the managing director of the IRISL Group since August 2015. He succeeded Mohammad Hossein Dajmar, who had held the position for ten years.

According to some reports, the maritime fleet of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines – which is Iran’s biggest shipping operator – comprises 115 ocean-going vessels, with the total capacity of 3.3 million tons deadweight (DWT).

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Pointing to the significant increase in the number of direct flights between the two neighbors from 20 to 48 per week, the Iranian envoy said the expansion of marine transportation between the two countries also follows the similar plan to boost Tehran-Muscat mutual economic interactions.

According to Nouri Shahroudi, Iran’s trade with Oman reached $700 million during the 11 months of the past Iranian year (March 21, 2018-Feb. 22), of which some $250 million accounted for Iran’s imports from the Arab country.

This will be the fifth direct shipping line between the two countries, after Jask-Suwaiq, Bandar Abbas-Sohar, Khorramshahr-Sohar and Bandar Abbas-Al Suwaiq routes.

The fourth direct marine route was established in December 2018, between Iran’s Jask Port and Oman’s Al Suwaiq Port to transport the wholesale Iranian commodities to Oman using containers.

Another important direct shipping line between Oman’s Sohar Port and Iran’s Bandar Abbas Port on the shores of the Strait of Hormuz also resumed activity in December last year, after the commercial vessels along this marine route had halted operations from early November after the new round of US sanctions against Iran came into effect.

If the same trend were to continue, he said, Tehran and Muscat will experience a huge increase in bilateral trade in the future.

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The Iranian vice-president Jahangiri said that the main objective of the US sanctions is to prevent the import of basic goods and raw materials to Iran.

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