TEHRAN- During the past Iranian calendar week (ended on Friday), 617,484 tons of commodities worth $408 million was traded at Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME).

As reported by the IME’s Public Relations and International Affairs Department, the exchange traded on its mineral and industrial trading floor, 302,541 tons of commodities worth more than $237 million.

Products sold on this floor included 248,631 tons of steel, 1,320 tons of copper, 2,470 tons of aluminum, 120 tons of molybdenum concentrate and 50,000 tons of iron ore concentrate.

The next trading floor was the IME's oil and petrochemical with 313,650 tons of commodities traded on its both domestic and export pits valued at more than $169 million.

On this floor the IME saw trades of 112,500 tons of vacuum bottom, 97,695 tons of bitumen, 41,578 tons of polymeric products, 32,485 tons of chemicals, 33,000 tons of lube cut, 3,000 tons of base oil, 100 tons of argon and 1,250 tons of sulfur.

Also, the exchange traded 1,292 tons of commodities on its side market.

As previously reported, the value of commodities traded at Iran Mercantile Exchange rose 54 percent during the past Iranian calendar month (March 21-April 20), compared to the same month in the past year.

The exchange’s Public Relations and International Affairs Department reported that 2.7 million tons of commodities worth $1.5 billion were traded at the exchange in the past month, showing also a 350-percent growth in terms of weight as compared to the same month of the previous year.

On its metal and mineral trading floor, the exchange traded within that month 1.421 million tons of commodities worth more than $790 million.

Commodities purchased were 1.097 million tons of steel, 11,780 tons of copper, 360 tons of molybdenum concentrate, 11,325 tons of aluminum, 400 tons of coke, 300,000 tons of iron ore, 200 tons of cast iron and 100 tons of lead.

Oil and petrochemical was the next trading floor on which the IME saw trades of more than 1.318 million tons of various types of commodities in both its domestic and export rings with a trading value of more than $700 million.

On this floor the IME traded 354,567 tons of bitumen, 237,258 tons of polymeric products, 124,668 tons of chemicals, 12,446 tons of base oil and 460,100 tons of vacuum bottom.

There were also 10,040 tons of sulfur, 310 tons of argon, 500 tons of insulation rolls and 111,200 tons of lube cut traded on the same floor.

Moreover, on its agricultural trading floor the IME saw trade of 2,500 kg of saffron.

The last trading floor was the IME's side market with 3,754 tons of commodities - not listed on the exchange's main spot market - sold on it.

The value of trades at Iran Mercantile Exchange in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) rose 108 percent compared to the preceding year.

During the past year, about 3.5 quadrillion rials (about $83.5 billion) worth of commodities were traded at the mentioned market.

In the past year, several new records were achieved in terms of the volume and value of transactions in the mentioned market’s various floors including the industrial, petroleum, and petrochemical floors.

IME is one of the four major stock markets of Iran, the other three markets are Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), Iran's over-the-counter (OTC) market known also as Iran Fara Bourse (IFB), and Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX).

MA/MA