Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world's second-largest shipping line, has returned to Iran more than six years after it docked at an Iranian port the last time, an official said.
A few weeks before the implementation of a recent nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, which will terminate all anti-Iran sanctions, the Swiss ship MSC Domitille arrived at the second terminal of Iran's largest port, Shahid Rajaei on the Persian Gulf on Thursday, Tasnim News Agency reported.
Ebrahim Eidani, director-general of Ports and Maritime Organization of Hormuzgan Province, said the ship was the first from the Swiss company to dock in Iran after six years.
MSC Domitille, with a capacity of 9,400 TEU, had left the Chinese port of Shanghai with 1,162 TEU of cargo before arriving at Shahid Rajaei Port, he noted.
From now on, Eidani added, MSC ships are scheduled to dock at the southern Iranian port every week.
The last MSC ship that berthed in Iran was MSC Beatrice with a capacity of 14,000 TEU, which arrived at Shahid Rajaei Port in 2009.
A day after the nuclear deal was finalized between Iran and the P5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France, and Germany) in July, MSC's CEO Diego Aponte welcomed the deal, saying his company is willing to cooperate with Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL).
The company operates in all major ports of the world.
Load, unload statistics
Also, Ports and Maritime Organization announced that 97.609 million tons of commodities were loaded and off-loaded during March 21- December 21, 2015, — down 10.6 percent against the figure for the same period in 2014. In the nine-month period, oil imports through Iranian ports surged by 50.8 percent.
During the mentioned period, over 1.85 million tons of oil products were imported by sea, while oil exports equaled 10.471 million tons — showing a 28.6-percent increase compared to the last year's figure.
According to Port and Maritime Organization, sea transport of non-oil goods in the nine-month period declined while imports dropped by 15.8 percent and exports by 11 percent.
The country exported about $32 billion of non-oil goods in the nine-month period, while importing $30.411 billion of non-oil products.