Azerbaijan , Baku, Feb. 18 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /
Over 31 million tons of cargo was delivered by Iran's shipping lines (IRISL) from March 21, 2010 to January 20, 2011.
It shows a 10, 5 percent increase over the same period of last year, IRISL director of strategic planning and international affairs, Captain Ali Ezzati was quoted by Mehr news agency as saying.
"IRISL, owning 165 ships, has the largest commercial fleet of the Middle East, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean", Ezzati said.
The annual capacity of Iranian ports will increase up to 200 million tons by the end of the Fifth Development Plan (2010-2015).
Announcing the above-mentioned, the managing director of the Iranian Port and Maritime Organization Seyyed Ataollah Sadr said that the current capacity of the country's ports is about 150 million tons per year, IRIB reported.
More than 40 multipurpose small ports have been established in the southern parts of the country since 2010. Roughly 300 small ports will be launched in the future.
According to the report, roughly 91 million tons of non-oil commodities were loaded and unloaded for the first eight months of the current Iranian year (started on March 21) showing a 15-percent growth compared to last year.
During the last year, more than 440 million containers have been shipped worldwide, of which only 0.5 percent fell to Iran, the official said adding that it should increase by at least 1 percent taking into account the potential and infrastructure.
