TEHRAN -- The paraxylene production unit of Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex with an annual production capacity of 180,000 tons came to stream, said managing director of Bandar Imam Petrochemical Company Abbas Sherimoqadam here Monday.

Sherimoqadam told IRNA that the unit started tentative operation in October and is now operating at 98 percent of its nominal production capacity.

He said the contract for purchase of production license for Bandar Imam paraxylene production unit was signed with a French Company in 1996.

He added that the project has cost the country $82 million plus Rls.165 billion.

The official said the paraxylene to be produced by the unit will be exported because Isfahan's Petrochemical Complex which produces 44,000 tons of this product a year meets domestic needs.

The average paraxylene production capacity of Bandar Imam is 540 tons a day.

Bandar Imam petrochemicals company is to export the first consignment of its paraxylene product, totalling 5,000 tons, to Pakistan in December, said the official.

So far 8,000 tons of paraxylene has been exported to India and another 3,000 tons to Thailand.

5,000 tons of barcarole would be exported to Taiwan and Indonesia, in the next two weeks, said Sherimoqadam, adding that the price of paraxylene is about $400 per ton, on foreign markets.

He said that his company has produced three million tons of petrochemicals in the first eight months of the year (started March 20) of which 1.12 million tons were exported and 600,000 tons offered for domestic consumption, he added.

The company earned $378 million in the first eight months through export of its products, said Sherimoqadam. He predicted that the figure would reach 460 million dollars by the end of the current Iranian year, on March 20.

(IRNA)