China-based market sources said on Monday that an estimated 100,000-150,000 metric tons of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) from Iran is expected to arrive in China within a month aboard five vessels, Platts reported.
The sources added that the Iranian tanker Touska is preparing to discharge HDPE and LDPE at the port of Shanghai over the weekend.
At the beginning of October 2012, Iran's Organization for Supporting Consumers and Producers announced that the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had banned the export of polymers, petrochemical products, and several metals to support national production.
A number of petrochemicals, including polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, and polyethylene terephthalate, were all placed on a list of items restricted for export sales.
Exports of wheat, flour, sugar, vegetable oil, soybeans, aluminum, scrap iron, copper wire, car tires, and steel products were also banned.
A total of 50 industrial and agricultural products were on the list.
On November 6, 2012, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Abdolhossein Bayat announced that the Oil Ministry had lifted the ban on the export of seven petrochemicals -- benzene, styrene monomer, caustic soda, linear alkyl benzene (LAB), melamine crystal, premature ventricular contraction (PVC), and polyethylene.
Bayat added that Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi had also issued an order detailing new regulations for petrochemical exports.
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China is set to start imports of Iranian-manufactured polyethylene this month, which became possible because the Islamic Republic partially lifted a ban on the export of petrochemicals late last year.
News ID 184036
