Skip to footer

Iranian ports come back to life after nuke deal

Following the nuclear deal between the US and Iran last month, international container lines are slowly resuming services to Iran. 

|
Tim Chong/File/Reuters
Iranian crude oil supertanker "Delvar" anchored off Singapore. Container ships are making a slow return to Iran after nuke deal.
  • By Beatrice Gitau Staff

International ship containers made an eagerly awaited return to Iranian ports this week. 

On Thursday, the UK-flagged CMA CGM Andromeda container ship arrived in Iran's Shahid Rajaee port. The day before, Taiwanese container line Evergreen, the world’s fifth largest container line, vessel resumed services to the country, Reuters reports.

The world's third largest container shipping group, France's CMA CGM, said on Monday it would restart services to Iran in early August.  Maersk Line, one of the world’s biggest container groups, said in a statement that it is ready to resume business in Iran again, “as and when international sanctions are repealed",” according to Reuters.  

In 2011, the US and Europe imposed sanctions on the country that led to an exit of foreign shipping lines services on the country’s ports. Since then, Iran had to rely more on land transportation and its commercial fleet to transport much of its imports, according to Press TV.

Though food, medicine and other humanitarian goods were exempted from the sanctions, foreign shipping companies had largely pulled out by 2012 because of the liability associated with the Iran trade. Even in the wake of the nuclear deal, the global shipping industry is moving slowly. 

"Members should exercise caution if they are considering trading to Iran and carry out due diligence including seeking legal advice to ensure that they will not be in breach of sanctions," ship insurer Standard Club said in a statement this week. 

There are now signs of great potential for trade in the country. Reuters reports that Fitch Group’s BMI Research forecasts that the volume of containers passing through Bandar Abbas, Iran's largest port for shipping containers, will expand by 6.7 percent year-over-year in 2015 to 1.7 million TEU (20-foot equivalent units – a common measure of cargo capacity for container ships).

 However, it’s going to be a long while before the US and European Union remove all sanctions against Iran. "Once Iran fulfills its commitments, it will receive sanctions relief," Samantha Evans, deputy head of the sanctions section at Britain's Foreign Office, told an Iran business forum in London.

"The port has a long way to go to reclaim its previous milestone of 2.8 million TEU, which it recorded in 2011, but we believe that recovery is underway," Michelle Berman, head of operational risk at BMI Research said in the firm's forecast.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Iranian ports come back to life after nuke deal
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2015/0807/Iranian-ports-come-back-to-life-after-nuke-deal
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe