Director General of Ports and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province in an interview with Radio, referring to the 24-hour activity of the country's ports in severe pandemic conditions of Corona, said: "In the first six months of the year, we saw a 13% increase in loading and unloading of goods in Anzali port complex."
According to the Public Relations Ports
and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province, on the morning of Thursday, September
30, Dr. Hamidreza Abaie in a radio interview on the occasion of World Maritime
Day with the slogan " Seafarers: at the
core of shipping's future" pointed to a 13% increase in loading and
unloading operations in the first 6 months of this year and stated: “In the
export and import sector, 300 ships have entered the Anzali Port Complex, which
shows a 13% growth compared to the same period last year.”
He considered the duty of the Ports
and Maritime Organization as a governing body to cooperate and apply the
international regulations on all water bodies of the country and added: The Ports
and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province is known as the custodian of loading
and unloading any goods that enter the mainland or leave the country.”
The Director
General of Ports and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province, stating that in the
difficult conditions of corona pandemic and sanctions against Iran, the
personnel of the ports and maritime sector who are active in the shipping
sector (Iranian and foreign companies) and the port operators put a lot of
effort, noted: “Being away from family and enduring hardships to meet the needs
of the people is a hard and difficult job that should always be appreciated.”
Referring to
the 24-hour activity of the country's ports in the severe pandemic conditions of Corona, Abaie stated: “The ports of Guilan province and all
over the country are closed only on the first two days of the New Year and
Ashura Day, and are engaged in providing services throughout the year. As a
result, we saw a 38% increase in the first six months of 1399 compared to the
same period in 1398, and in 1400, compared to the same period last year, we had
a 13% increase in loading and unloading operations.
The Director
General of Ports and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province further demanded the
abolition of VAT from ports located in the Anzali Free Zone and said: “Other
ports benefit from the 9% value added tax exemption, but Anzali and Caspian
ports due to the cancellation of the tax exemption can not take advantage of
this, which has created problems in attracting cargo and offering discounts to
ships and goods.”
Abaie asked the
esteemed representatives of the intelligent people of Guilan province in the
Islamic Consultative Assembly to help the Ports and Maritime Organization to
re-establish this tax exemption and to solve these problems next year with the
help of the honored representatives.
100% Growth of
Exports and Development of Round Trips with Fully Loaded Vessels
He pointed to a 100% growth of
exports and development of round trips with fully loaded vessels and
said: “Regarding the traffic of ships from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan, Russia and Iran in the Caspian Sea, we hope that the transit and
export of goods within Eurasia will be further developed with the entry of Iran
into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.”
The Director General
of Ports and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province announced the most important
export items from Anzali Port Complex as construction goods, agricultural
products, fruit concentrate and petrochemicals and stated: “Due to the small
volume of agricultural products, most of these goods are not transported from
Anzali Port Complex. The reason for this is the lack of a specific trustee in Guilan
province for the export and multimodal transportation, and the manufacturer
preferably transports its products directly by one or more trucks by land.”
Abaie
emphasized: “in order to boost the activity of ro-ro ships and attract the
attention of these economic activists, it is possible to move the trucks
carrying their goods in this way, because the sea transportation of trucks with
ro-ro ships is more economical in terms of cost reduction and depreciation.”
He added: “Ports
and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province provided 11 trips for this ship for
the prosperity of shipping, which due to numerous problems and inconsistencies
between the responsible agencies (such as fuel) faced obstacles. We hope that
with the coordination made, this sector will become more active and problems
such as what happened in Azerbaijan for the movement of our country's trucks
will be solved in this way.”
Director General of Ports and Maritime Authority
of Guilan Province, emphasizing on container transportation, said: "With
this method, healthy, safe and cheaper goods will be delivered to the consumer,
but unfortunately this method has not yet found its main place in the Caspian
Sea."
Referring to
the country's policy in allocating currency to the import of basic goods and
grains, Abaie said: "Fortunately, with the good coordination that has been
done, out of 830 thousand tons of goods loaded and unloaded in this port, 507
thousand tons are cereals and compared to the last year, we had a 20% growth in
the supply of the country's basic goods.”
Director General
of Ports and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province, stating that in the supply
of basic goods, emphasis has been on grains such as wheat, said: “Wheat has
been considered as one of the basic goods in the country and fortunately with
good support and coordination of the government and the Grain Organization, we
were able to unload about 225,000 tons of edible wheat and people's needs in
the Anzali Port Complex.”
Abaie added: “All
these cargoes were transported directly from Anzali port to private warehouses
in coordination with the silos of Guilan province and neighboring provinces and
with the cooperation of customs and the General Directorate of Highways.”
He called this
action valuable and added: “Guilan province with an average rainfall of 186
days a year was able to overcome the difficult conditions of grain unloading
and experience an 18-hour record for unloading a ship of 6,000 tons.”
Changing the Approach of the Port Complex from Activities in the field of
Hardware to Grain
Director General
of Ports and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province emphasized: “By providing
new equipment, we are looking for moisture insulation during rainy so that the
ship can be loaded and unloaded using suction pipes and transmission system in
isolation, and the grains transferred from the dock directly to the silo. We
hope this will be done in the next 2 months.”
Referring to
the change in the port complex's approach from hardware to grain, Abaie said:
"By changing the nature of goods in Anzali port to grain, we have prepared
silos and warehouses for grain storage that were not in good condition before
and now good measures are taken to rebuild them."
He pointed out:
During the last three years, the capacity of the port silos increased from
15,000 tons to 190,000 tons, and if these silos are fully exploited, we will
have a very good capacity in loading and unloading the grain.
The Director General
of Ports and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province further pointed to the
support of the Ports and Maritime Organization for the purchase of ships with
low-interest loans from the managed funds of the Ports and Maritime
Organization and said: “The organization provides low-interest long-term loans
for the purchase of passenger, container and cruise ships, and provides up to 90%
of the ship's price for applicants to improve shipping conditions under the
Iranian flag in the Caspian Sea.”
In another
part, Abaie considered the issuance of international and maritime competence certificates
in all maritime disciplines as one of the most important functions of the Ports
and Maritime Organization and added: "This organization conducts various
training courses according to the international convention as the custodian of
seafarers' training and what is very important for us is to take advantage of
the power of the private sector in this regard.”
The Director General
of Ports and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province said: "Currently, we
are using the potentials of several specialized schools throughout the country,
and in Guilan province, several schools are teaching marine techniques too. At
present, in Covid pandemic conditions, these trainings are held virtually, and just
in special cases, tests and classes are performed practically.”
He stressed:
"We have a limited capacity to use the potentials of these trained forces,
and due to the difficult maritime conditions on ships and the problems that
exist, many of them are not willing to work in this field."
The Director General
of Ports and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province regarding the prosperity of
maritime tourism also said: “the Caspian Sea is unpredictable due to the
hydrodynamic conditions of the sea, therefore maritime tourism has not
flourished much.”
International Passenger Terminal in Anzali Port
Stating that traffic
in the Caspian Sea is often done for trade, fishing and military relations, Abaie
said: "Good measures have been taken in the maritime tourism sector in
recent years, and we hope to achieve a good boom in maritime tourism by
launching a marine marina."
The Director General
of Ports and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province, referring to the good
capacity of Chamkhaleh tourist port with 55% progress in the infrastructure of
this port, said: “using the capacity of maritime tourism in the coastal
provinces of the Caspian Sea, it will be possible to travel from Astara to the
end of Turkmen port.”
He said:
"We hope that passengers can use the beautiful nature of the three
northern provinces of the country (Guilan, Mazandaran and Golestan) and can enter
the ship with their cars and families and travel from one city to another just
by preparing a ticket."
Abaie stated
that the Ports and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province has provided the
necessary bases for the prosperity of this important matter, and said:
"There is an international passenger terminal in Bandar Anzali and if we
can provide the ground for the arrival of international ships, we can provide
conditions that let the pilgrims going to Iraq
from Azerbaijan be transferred from Baku port to Anzali port by ship instead of
using the Astara land border, which causes many problems for us.”
The Director General
of Ports and Maritime Authority of Guilan Province pointed to the problems
related to the movement of Iranian merchants and traders to Russia and added:
"I am looking to remove obstacles and pave the way for tourist
ships."
He praised the
efforts of all those who are active in the supply chain and maritime transport
logistics sector and congratulated this day to all the seafarers working in the
maritime industry and said: The maritime and shipping industry owes much to the
efforts of all those who help the Ports and Maritime Organization, including
shipping companies, customs and regulatory and governing organizations such as
Standards, Jihad Agriculture and Veterinary and Insurance, and all who are
active in the port and maritime community.”