Iran produced more than 30 million tons of petrochemicals in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-August 22), said the production control director at Iran's National Petrochemical Company (NPC).
Ali Bassaqzadeh said the country’s petrochemical output reached 30.7 million tons in the eight-month period, showing 3 percent rise compared to the same period last year and 74 percent increase in terms of exploiting nominal petrochemical production capacity, the SHANA News Agency reported on Wednesday.
In this period, he said, some 9.4 million tons of petrochemical products were sold in the domestic market, while 12.5 million tons of products were exported, up 8 percent compared to the previous years’ eight-month figures.
Iran’s petrochemical sector is forecast to see an output surge to 44.6 million tons by the end of the current Iranian calendar year, he said, noting that by meeting this target, 81 percent of the nominal petrochemical production capacity would come on stream.
Yet in October, NPC had announced that petrochemical sector has set a target of reaching 62 million tons of output by year-end.
Iran also plans to raise its petrochemical production to around 129 million tons by 2021, which marks the end of the country’s sixth five-year development plan.
Officials say the country has the capacity to produce 60 million tons of petrochemicals per annum.