Azernews.Az

Iran currently exports cement to 24 countries including Iraq, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Oman, India, and China, IRNA news agency reported.

Seven countries out of the mentioned 24 accounted for 97 per cent of Iran's total cement exports.

Iraq with 63 per cent, Azerbaijan with 4 per cent, and Turkmenistan with 7 per cent, were the main importers of Iranian cement.

Deputy Head of Khuzestan's Cement Exporters Union said on June 10 that following Turkmenistan, Iraq will stop importing Iranian cements from July 1.

The move supposedly aims at boosting Iraq's domestic cement production, ISNA news agency quoted Sadeq Sava'edi as saying.

Deputy Head of the Iranian Trade Promotion Organization Reza Tofiqi said on June 17 that Iraq has not stopped importing Iranian cement.

Iran exported cement worth $560 million to Iraq in the previous year.

Iran's cement and clinker exports stood at over 13.648 million tons in the previous calendar year, which ended on March 20.

The country exported over 11.85 million tons of cement and 1.79 million tons of clinker in the mentioned period.

Iran produced 75 million tons of cement in the previous year. The country's cement production capacity stands at 80 million tons.

Iran with a total production of 65 million tons ranked as the world's third
largest cement producer in 2012.

Iran's cement output in the first calendar month of the current year (March 21 - April 20) stood at 4.94 million tons, Mohammad Fatemian, an official with the Industry, Mine, and Trade ministry said.

Iran exported 1,076,063 tons of cement in the first calendar month of current year. The amount shows a 28.4 per cent increase compared to the same period of the previous year, IRNA reported.

Iran also exported some 282,149 tons of clinker in the mentioned period, which is 11.8 per cent more than in the previous year.

Some 6.27 million tons of clinker was produced in the mentioned period, he said.

The country plans to export over 18.5 million tons of cement in the current Iranian calendar year, Fatemian said.

Industry, Mine and Trade Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari said in August 2012 that the country's cement production capacity will reach 110 million tons by 2015.