NPC's commercial arm, Iran Petrochemical Commercial Co. (IPCC), exported 10,000 tonnes of granular sulfur from Assaluyeh in December 2002. The product, which was sold to China, was the first shipment of sulfur produced from phases 2-3 of the South Pars development projects.
The South Pars sulfur is produced in granulated form with sizes ranging from 2 to 7mm in yellow colors and with world quality standards and specifications.
Enrosol of Canada has carried out the design and installation of the granular sulfur plants at Assaluyeh. The product is carried by special porch truck to the mechanized sulfur warehouse which has a storage capacity of 36,000 tonnes where all the process is done by conveyor belts. Currently, loading onto sulfur carrying vessels is done either by specially designed buckets or in one-tonne jambo bags.
South Pars gas field will be developed in various phases, each producing 200 tonnes/day of granular sulfur. As a result, there will be an additional annual quantity of around 0.5m tonnes of sulfur available for export from the South Pars by 2006 increasing the exportable volume of sulfur from Iran to 1.3m tonnes.
In 2002, Iran's share of the global sulfur exports reached 4.6 per cent. The figure was 10.3 per cent for the Middle East exports. Iran exported most of the product to India, China, Tunisia, Morocco and Bangladesh.
The world sulfur industry has expanded substantially during the past 30 years, particularly since 1980. During this period, the main sulfur sources including pyrites and minded as well as sulfur produced by Frasch processes have been substantially replaced by sulfur recovered from oil and gas. In 2001, some 95 per cent of the product global output came from oil and gas industries with a breakdown of 16.7mn tonnes from oil and 22.4mn tonnes from natural gas.
With an output of 7.5mn tonnes in 2001, Canada had the world's largest share of recovered sulfur. Iran was the world's seventh largest producer of sulfur in 2001 by producing 870,000 tonnes.





NPC's exports will reach an all-time high of $900mn by the end of the current Iranian calendar year on March 20, 2003. The exports entail 4.5mn tonnes of chemicals, gases and polymers.
Mohammad Ehtiati, chairman and managing director of the Iran Petrochemical Commercial Company (IPCC) which is the NPC's commercial arm said the company's products are sold to fifty countries. He added that Asia accounts for 90% of the NPC's market share and Europe and Africa represent the remaining 10%. He said the company's overall revenues from export and domestic sales of its products would reach around $6bn by 2005 adding that, "currently, the revenues stand at $1.8bn."





IPCC is planning to expand its presence in African petrochemical markets. Market studies prepared by the company indicate growing demand as more affluence in some African countries is achieved. The study shows demand for polyethylene, vinyl, polystyrene, PET and ABS.
IPCC's current major African customers include Tunisia, Egypt and Mozambique. The continent offers a very high future potential for IPCC.
The recently held Iran Plastic and Rubber Show (Iran Plast 2002), hosted a delegation of 35 representatives from 13 African countries including South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tunisia and Djibouti. Some of the delegates showed interest to purchase plastics, rubbers, aromatics, engineering polymers and fertilizers from IPCC. Some of the delegates requested to act as the company's agent in their respective countries and to conclude bonded warehouse transactions with IPCC.