Iran Petrochemical Commercial Co. (IPCC)'s sales reached over $1.23bn in the nine months to mid December 02. The earnings include $604mn of exports and $626mn of domestic sales. During this period 2.85mn tonnes of various petrochemical products were exported and 3mn tonnes were sold domestically.
NPC's output is expected to reach 12.6mn tonnes at the end of current Iranian calendar year (20 March 03) of which 61% or 7.7mn tonnes will be saleable. IPCC expects to market 50% of the NPC's output at international markets while it will sell the remaining half to domestic market.
IPCC sold its products to 294 foreign customers whose number is up by 34% compared to the same period last year.
Mohammad Ehtiati, IPCC managing director and chairman says "remaining a force in the global petrochemical markets entails high quality products, observing the required standards, uninterrupted supply and promotion of sales services".
The value of NPC's overall output is anticipated to come to $1.65bn by the year-end on 20 March 03. The figure will jump to $6.9bn when parts of its development projects are completed by 2005. Export earnings is believed to reach $4.8bn by then.
IPCC is NPC's commercial arm.





The UK's Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) announced on 24 December 2002 that it is prepared to provide support for UK exporters trading with the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) for contracts of up to $20 million without the need to enter into a structured finance arrangement.
The decision will be a major boost to UK companies selling capital goods or providing services where contract values are of modest amounts to NPC.
ECGD Chief Executive Vivian Brown said: "The current arrangements of developing structured financial transactions, to enable ECGD to support NPC have worked extremely well. However, the security arrangements are more suited to higher value contracts. Now we will be able to provide our customers with a faster, simpler service appropriate to smaller contracts".



Razi Petrochemical Complex (RPC) has replaced its high-pressure carbamate condenser (HPCC) in its urea No. 2 unit increasing the plant's output to its nominal capacity of 1500 tonne/day. The condenser is a critical equipment in the plant's synthesis section. Urea output in the plant had fallen due to tube failures in HPCC.
The 88 tonnes and 16 meters tall condenser was installed at an elevation of fifty meters during RPC's overhaul using a 550 tonnes crane.
RPC already has two ammonia and two urea plants in operation. It has an overall production capacity of 3.7 million tonnes per year.





Supplying Petrochemical Industries Parts, Equipment and Chemicals Engineering Co. (SPEC) has helped forge a joint venture contract between Haver & Boecker of Germany, Farineh of Iran as well as a joint venture company of Bag Line Italy and Palas Iran, for establishing a packaging system in Iran. The system consists of Form Fill Seal (FFS) machine, palletizer, wrapping, shrink, conveyors and auxiliary device with a bagging capacity of 1600 bags per hour.
According to the contract, the local fabrication content in Iran will initially range between 20-60 per cent of the overall value of a complete line of packing. The content is expected to increase at later stages. The contract calls for provision of training, supply of spare parts, provision of after-sales services and transfer of technology.
A subsidiary of Iran Petrochemical Commercial Co. (IPCC), SPEC is responsible for managing and adopting policies for maximizing the content of locally manufactured and fabricated spare parts, equipment and chemicals, which are used in petrochemical industry.



NPC's Downstream Industries Department has recently completed a techno-economic study on a polyol project which will be available for investors in the private sector.
The study covers thorough information on the product and an analysis of its local and international market analysis, the supply and demand chain and various technologies and production processes available internationally.
Polyols are alcohols with multiple hydroxyl groups. They are used in polyurethane industries for the production of sponges, elastomers, adhesives, sealants and synthetic fibers. They also used for the production of surface-active agents, lubricants, cosmetics and herbicides.
Local Polyurethane foam manufacturing plans already meet their needs by importing polyurethane compound consisting of isocyanate, polyol,additives and catalysts.The growing use and application of polyurethane foams fogether with the construction of an isocyanate project by NPC,has made the implementation of polyol projects very important.



A new independent natural gasoline ship-loading pipeline has been commissioned in Kharg Petrochemical Complex (KPC). The project started in April 2002 to lay 1500 meters of a 14-inch nominal pipe size (NPS) line and came into service in September 2002 with a loading rate of 600 tonnes per hour which is twice as much the earlier loading rate. The cost of the project was $80,000 plus Rials 1500mn. Natural gasoline tankers were formerly loaded through the butane ship-loading line.
Besides the tremendous increase in gasoline loading rate, LPG ship-loading rate has increased as a result of the possibility of using butane loading line for LPG loading. Construction was done by Iranian contractor Jahad-Nasr -Boushehr and supervision by KPC Engineering and Planning Department.

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