Top port operator weighs Iran investment

DP World, one of the largest port operators in the world, is weighing investments of up to $1 billion in Iran, the IRNA news agency quoted officials as saying. 

A delegation from the Dubai-based company, including its chairman and executives and their British partners, is visiting Iran on a three-day trip to study investment opportunities, it said.

On Tuesday, they visited the Caspian port of Bandar Anzali, the Qeshm island in the Persian Gulf and Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman to assess trade capacities.

“The Emirati delegation will be examining the capacities of the three free trade zones for an investment of $500 million to $1 billion,” deputy head of the Chabahar Free Trade Zone Mohsen Mohammadi Moin said.

DP World operates ports from China to Peru, with a portfolio of more than 65 terminals across the world. In 2006, it acquired the world’s fourth largest port operator London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) for $7 billion.

Meanwhile, Iran is preparing its ports for stepped-up international trade as they are emerging from US and European sanctions.

According to state officials, global shipping lines have ramped up calls on Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf, especially Shahid Rajaee which is the country’s biggest container port.

Several foreign delegations, including Kazakhs, have visited Shahid Rajaee and other Iranian ports for investment. The Kazakhs seek to build silos in the port for their wheat crop to send it and other goods to the world market.

Iran offers a unique transit corridor linking Russia and the Central Asia to the Subcontinent and the Persian Gulf.

The country has stepped up trans-Caspian transit by expanding its fleet of cargo ships in Bandar Anzali and two more ports for trade with Russia, Kazakhstan and other regional countries.

From the Caspian shores, a railway runs all the way across Iran to the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.

In May, India signed a memorandum of understanding for development of the Chabahar Port to operate container and multi-purpose cargo ships to boost trade with the ex-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent Countries.

Iranian officials say many other foreign companies are planning investment in Chabahar which is seen a potential transit hub in the Sea of Oman.

Iran’s new development plan, unveiled by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei last week, calls for the development of Makran which includes all the coastal area from the Strait of Hormuz to Chabahar.

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