China, largest buyer of Iranian petchems

An official announced that half of Iranian petrochemicals are sent to China turning the East Asian country into the largest market for Iran's petrochemical industry.

Fariborz Karimaei, deputy head of the Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporation, said Iran's petrochemical production has gone up from 40.5 million tons in 2013 to 46.5 million tons in 2015 while, based on estimates, production will hit 50 million tons in the year to mid-March 2017, Mehr News Agency reported.

The official underlined that Iran's petchem exports stood at 18.8 million tons in the year to March 19. "In the past five years, changes have taken place in the trends of Iran's petrochemical exports to different markets."

Karimaei recalled that prior to the sanctions, Europe had an 11-percent share in Iran's petchem market while the figure for Europe as well as for Japan and South Korea dropped significantly after the Western sanctions were imposed.

"Meanwhile, exports to China have grown substantially over the past few years climbing from about 19 percent to a record high of 39 percent during the sanction years and 57 percent in the previous year," he added.