Swiss win Aprin dry port contract as Iran’s non-oil exports boom

Aprin dry port: The Swiss-based  transport and logistics multinational Transinvest Holdings has signed a 25-year contract with Iran’s Perse Transport Bar  for the development of a 700-ha dry port some 20 km south of Tehran. On completion, Aprin Dry Port will act as a hub that connects the Iranian capital to the country’s sea ports and will also become the country’s central cargo intersection with the North-South Transport Corridor, the ship, rail, and road route running from India and Central Asia to Russia and Europe. 
“We are aiming to turn the port into a special economic zone ” Mohsen Pour-Seyed Aqaei, the managing director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (IRIR), told Trend  following the signing ceremony on Sunday. Phase one of the project is expected to take 2.5 years to complete and to cost $30m, with Transinvest guaranteeing a minimum capacity of 400,000 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit), mainly for freight transported by train from Iran’s ports.
Aprin will also help Iran cope with an exponential growth in its non-oil exports since the lifting of sanctions last year: the Islamic Republic’s  non-oil balance of trade was  $916m in the black for  the year ending in March, the first surplus it has recorded since 1979.  The upward trajectory looks set to continue, with the value of non-oil exports to Europe standing at $643m for the first five months of the current Iranian year, 21% up on the same period in 2015. Combined non-oil exports to Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan are also expected to grow from $2bn to $3bn in the current year.