A new shipping route between the seaport of Kandla in western India and Iran's southern Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf has been officially established with the arrival of a cargo ship named Neshat.
Neshat, a general cargo ship measuring 174 meters in length and 26 meters, carried 13,000 tons of commercial goods from India to Qeshm and docked at Kaveh International Port.
Iran and India launched a shipping lane in January from India’s Mumbai to Mundra Port, Kandla, Iran’s port city of Chabahar and the port city of Bandar Abbas.
India is among Iran's major trading partners.
Iran-India trade stood at 10.37 million tons worth $4.63 billion in the last fiscal year (2018-19) to register a 10.78% and 7.14% decline in tonnage and value respectively year-on-year, Financial Tribune reports.
Iran exported 8.36 million tons of goods worth $2.04 billion to India, down 14.95% and 25.34% in tonnage and value respectively YOY.
India was Iran’s seventh biggest export destination in the world during the period.
Iran’s exports to India mainly included methanol, urea, ammonia and bitumen. The country imported 2.01 million tons of commodities worth $2.59 billion from India, up by 12.04% and 14.91% in tonnage and value respectively YOY, which mainly included semi- and wholly-milled rice, tea, graphite electrodes used in furnaces and oilcake.
India was the fourth exporter to Iran last year.