TEHRAN – Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) has launched a production line for manufacturing multi-purpose shipping containers in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport and Urban Development, the portal of PMO reported.

As reported, Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami and PMO Head Mohammad Rastad attended the opening ceremony, which was held on Tuesday.

According to Mohammad Ali Hassan-Zadeh, the deputy head of PMO, with the establishment of this production unit, which is based in Alborz province in north-central Iran, the county will be self-sufficient in the manufacturing of shipping containers and will no longer face problems in this regard.

“Container is one of the most important tools of world trade today," Hassan-Zadeh said, adding that according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), of the total volume of shipping trade in the world, nearly 40 percent is in the form of liquid bulk, 35 percent in the form of solid bulk, 16 percent is by containers and the rest are in the form of general cargoes.

PMO is seeking to create new container capacity in the country’s ports to gain more share of container transportation in the region, according to Rastad.

Nearly 1.7 million TEUs of container cargos were loaded and unload at Iran’s ports during the past Iranian calendar year (March 2018-March 2019).

EF/MA

Photo: Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami (3rd L) and PMO Head Mohammad Rastad (2nd L) attended the opening ceremony of a container manufacturing unit in Alborz Province on Tuesday.