Jamaica to import Iranian petrochemical products

TEHRAN,May 22(MNA) - Jamaica is the newest importer of Iranian petrochemical products, said the managing director of the Arvand Petrochemical Complex on the sidelines of inaugurating the world’s largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) unit in the complex. “Launching the PVC unit will remove the need for importing caustic soda,” Esmaeel Mousavi said. The PVC production line in the Arvand Petrochemical Complex will increase Iran's annual PVC production capacity by 340,000 tons. Iran has invested about $1.6 billion in the Arvand Petrochemical Complex since it began developing the project in 2003. The Arvand Petrochemical Complex produces 2.834 million tons of various petrochemical products each year, which are used as feedstock in the downstream sector such as detergents, papers, textiles and healthcare industries as well as solvents for resins and waxes. In addition to Jamaica, the complex’s products are exported to South Africa, Nigeria, Singapore, India, China and some European countries. Deputy Oil Minister Abdolhossein Bayat has said that the country's petrochemical exports had not declined despite EU sanctions. “Nine petrochemical projects will be implemented in the current Iranian year which will boost the country’s output by 8 million tons,” the Shana News agency quoted him as saying. Iran has explored new destinations to export its petrochemical products, he said, adding that currently exporting petrochemical products to Europe is regularly underway. On April 18, Bayat said that Iran exported some $14 billion worth of petrochemical products to 60 countries last calendar year, which ended on March 19. He added that $10.5 billion of oil income will be allocated to the development of the national petrochemical industry. Iran has developed 69 plans to boost its petrochemical output from the past year’s 54 million tons to 100 million tons in 2015.