Iran Decided to Keep Its Export Ban on Polymers

Iran has decided to keep its export ban on polymers like acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, general purpose polystyrene, high impact polystyrene, polypropylene, polycarbonates and epoxy resins despite having lifted a ban on exports of other polymers like polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate and polyvinyl chloride, sources said Tuesday at the Arabplast exhibition in Dubai. 

"We were expecting the ban on ABS, GPPS, HIPS, PP, polycarbonates and epoxy resins to be lifted in January, but the government has continued with it," a trader of Iranian products said. "Export of products like various grades PE, PET and PVC from Iran is however normal now." 

Iran's Consumer and Producers Protecting Agency, a quasi-governmental body, wrote at the end of October to companies dealing in Iranian-origin petrochemicals telling them that PE, PP, PVC, PS, PP, PET, polycarbonates and epoxy resins were among 50 industrial and agricultural products restricted from export from November. 

The restrictions also applied to wheat, flour, sugar, vegetable oil, soybean, aluminum, scrap iron, copper wire, car tires and steel products produced in Iran. 

The country's government quickly reversed the order and lifted the ban on most of the products on November 6, but continued with the ban on PS, PP, polycarbonates and epoxy resins. 

Tabriz Petrochemical Company, at Tabriz in Iran's northwest, is the only producer of most of the polymer' exports which are currently banned. 

No official reason was given by the government for the export ban, but sources close to the matter cited a mix of reasons from a shortage of petrochemicals in the country to the plunge in the value of the Iranian currency against the dollar. 

"We now understand that the continuing ban on exports of certain polymers is because of shortages of those products in the country," an official working for Iran's Petrochemical Commercial Company, the largest trading company in the country said. 

"It is however strange that the government has decided to continue with the export of PET even though there is a shortage of 6,000-7,000 mt/month of the product in the country," another trader in Iranian products said. 

Iran imposed a quota on exports of various petrochemicals towards end-November which slowed its polymer exports in December. The quotas allocated for exports of various petrochemicals have not been formally announced. 

"The Iran government operated Markets Control Committee which directly reports to the President of the country decides on the quota," a trader said.