Competition of Iraq’s Faw Port with Iranian Ports and the Threat to the North-South Corridor

Shahid Rajaei Port of Iran has an annual loading and unloading capacity of 160 million tons, and Imam Khomeini Port has a capacity of 60 million tons. This is due to its strategic loading and unloading equipment. Therefore, in terms of numbers, Iranian ports are considered developed ports. But the question is how much of this nominal capacity has been converted into operational capacity. Unfortunately, at present, the operational capacity of Iranian ports is much less than their nominal capacity.

One of the most important reasons for this is the inadequacy of connecting infrastructure such as railways and the lack of an active position and role of freight forwarders in marketing and market-making the transit of shipments from other countries and driving the development of multimodal transport in the country, in such a way that port operations often deal with the export and import process, and the share of transit cargo logistics in the total port logistics process is 4.7 to 6.5 percent. For example, railways, as one of the influential pillars in making transport logistics more economical and cost-effective, have not yet been able to play the role they should in attracting transit cargo. In this regard, Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, at its best, during the Corona pandemic and the closure of transit operations, had a performance of 2 million tons, which is far from the performance of railways in other countries.