Iraq closes borders with Iran on virus, subdues steel trade

London — Iraq has closed five land borders with Iran, Iran's Irna news agency reported. However, the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) announced Sunday that this is a temporary closure to prevent the spread of coronavirus and that all of the borders will be reopened on March 15.

Exports to Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan still continue, according to an Iranian steel trader. "For the time being, all of the shipments are from previous contracts. Iraqi traders prefer to not enter any new deal and just observe the situation for a while," he said.

The Turkey and Turkmenistan borders are still closed for Iranian steel but after a week of closure, the border with Pakistan was re-opened on Sunday for Iranian products, according to informed sources.

There have been various reports on the export situation to Afghanistan, one of the main target markets for Iran's finished products. One trader said that Iranian rebars continue to be shipped to Afghanistan despite delays caused by the Afghani customs. "Azerbaijan also closed its border for Iranian trucks but the cargo can possibly be re-loaded on Azerbaijani trucks," he said.

Most of Iran's steel exports are billet and slab. However, rebar and beam exports from Iran are traditionally being shipped into neighboring countries, such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some 5.88 million mt of finished and semi-finished steel products were exported by the main Iranian steel producers in the first ten months of the current Iranian year (to January 20), a 25% increase over the same period last year. In the past month alone exports totaled 675,000 mt, a 93% increase on year, according to statistics from Iranian mines and metals holding group Imidro.

Iran exported some $2.5 billion dollars worth of various goods, including steel products, to Iraq in the last Iranian year.