Iran-china nine-month trade tops $27b
Trade between Iran and China stood at $27.2 billion in first nine months of 2017, according to the latest figures released by the Chinese Customs Administration.
China’s exports to Iran in the nine-month period amounted to $13.3 billion showing a growth of 17.3 percent year-on-year, Trend News Agency reported.
China exported goods valued at $1.3 billion to the Islamic Republic in September 2017, compared to $1.2 billion in September 2016.
The country also imported commodities valued at $13.9 billion from Iran in the nine-month period, which is 32.7 percent more compared to the figure for the same period of 2016.
China’s imports from Iran amounted to $1.7 billion in September 2017 whereas the figure for the same month in 2016 was $1.1 billion.
Trade between the two countries was $51 billion in 2014, which is 31 percent more than the amount for the preceding year.
The figure stood at $34 billion in 2015, indicating a decline of 34 percent.
Trade between Iran and China stood at $31.2 billion in 2016 — down 7.7 percent from 2015.
China has traditionally been Iran’s biggest trading partner. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed with world powers, including China, in 2015, gave a further boost to bilateral economic relations.
China is the top importer of Iranian oil and non-oil commodities.
“Iran-china trade has been developing since JCPOA. China is not only Iran’s biggest trade partner now but also one of the major investors in our country,” said Iran’s Ambassador to China Ali Asghar Khaji in July, referring to China National Petroleum Corporation’s 30 percent share in the $4.8 billion contract involving Iran, France and China to develop Phase 11 of the giant South Pars Gas Field.
China signed a contract with Iran to finance the electrification of a 926- km railroad from Tehran to the northeastern city of Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi Province with a $ 1.5- billion loan. This was the first foreign financing in an Iranian project post JCPOA.
As per the agreement signed between the two sides in Tehran, the guarantee for the loan, which is to be granted by Exim Bank of China, will be provided by Iran’s Bank of Industry and Mine.
The electrification project will be carried out by China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation, otherwise known as CMC. The project is expected to take four years to complete.
“China Exim Bank has financed 26 projects in Iran to date,” Sun Ping, vice president of Exim Bank of China, said on the sidelines of the signing ceremony for the financing deal in Tehran, adding that $8.5 billion in loans have so far been granted by the bank to fund Iranian projects.
Tehran-mashhad railroad is a strand of the New Silk Road — a 3,200-kilometer railroad project that ultimately sees Urumqi, the capital of China’s western Xinjiang Province linked to the Iranian capital Tehran, connecting Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan along the way.
The idea was first proposed by chief engineer of China Railway Corporation He Huawu in late 2015.