“We are now in a comprehensive economic war in a way that exports of iron ore concentrate are allowed while imports of auto parts are banned,” Rahmani said.
“On the way to support domestic industries, imports of rival products are banned,” he added.
“Iran is focusing on increasing exports to neighbor countries,” the minister said.
“Contrary to the enemies’ plans, our industries are reinforced,” he noted.
On September 14, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said the pace of progress in the petroleum, gas, refinement and petrochemical industries in Iran has quickened so sharply that new contracts and projects would be unveiled every two weeks.
“From now on, once every two weeks, we will have a new inauguration or the signing of a new contract, which shows that not only have the sanctions failed to halt Iran’s industrial progress, but also our pace of development of the oil, gas, refining and petrochemical (industries) has accelerated,” Zanganeh said.
Iran is now on the verge of the second leap in the petrochemical industry that would increase the annual output to above 100 million tons, Zanganeh said, adding that a third leap is expected to further raise the production capacity of the country’s petrochemical industry to more than 150 million tons.
In May, Managing Director of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) Behzad Mohammadi unveiled plans for a big rise in the production of petrochemicals, saying the annual income from domestic petrochemical output is expected to hit $25 billion within the next two years.
In August 2018, NPC officials said Iran’s petrochemical industry was “unsanctionable” and that the exports would continue on schedule despite the US sanctions.
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