Iran to Build 300 New Ports Soon

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran plans to increase the number of its ports to boost its loading and unloading capacities in a move to further expand the country's trade exchanges, an Iranian official said, adding that a number of 300 new ports are slated to launch operation in the near future.
 
 
Managing Director of Iran's Port and Maritime Organization Ataollah Sadr made the remarks on Sunday, saying that more than 40 multipurpose small ports have been constructed in the southern parts of the country since last year.

Sadr noted that the capacity of container loading and unloading in Iran's ports is currently at about 4.4 million per year which will increase to 7 million by the end of 2015.

The current capacity of the country's ports is about 150 million tons per year, which will witness a significant rise by the end of the Fifth Development Plan (2010-2015), he added.

Some 91 million tons of non-oil commodities have been loaded and unloaded in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21), indicting a 15-percent growth against the same period of the last year.

Also Iran has announced that the volume of Iran's non-oil exports has shown a 26% growth since the beginning of the current Iranian year (started on March 21, 2010).

"Non-oil exports, including gas condensates, have reached $17.447bln during the last seven months of the current year, which shows a 26 percent increase compared with the same period last year," General-Director of Iran's Customs Office Ardeshir Mohammadi said in November.
(Source:http://english.farsnews.com/)