Iran is expected to export petrochemicals worth $14 billion in the Persian year ending March 20, 2012 up 21% from a year ago, the Tehran Times reported Sunday.
Iran currently has a 24.5% share of total petrochemical production in the Middle East and about 2.4% of global production, the newspaper quoted Abdolhossein Bayat, managing director at Iran's largest petrochemical manufacturer, National Petrochemical Company, as saying.
Iran currently exports petrochemicals to 60 countries, according to the report which did not name the export destinations or volumes.
Iran produces and exports a range of petrochemicals from aromatics to polymers and other chemicals.
Sanctions imposed by the European Union, which come into effect on July 1, have banned the import of oil and petrochemicals from Iran into Europe. This followed US sanctions in November which specifically targeted Iran's petrochemicals industry for the first time.
