TEHRAN- During the past Iranian calendar year, the value of trades at Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) rose four percent.

According to a report by the IME’s International Affairs and Public Relations Department, 631,879 tons of commodities worth $400 million were traded at the exchange in the past week, showing also two percent rise in terms of the volume of traded goods.

As reported, the exchange sold on its mineral and industrial trading floor 232,884 tons of commodities worth almost $207 million.

On this floor there were 191,824 tons of steel, 6,880 tons of copper, 660 tons of aluminum, 120 tons of molybdenum concentrate, 33,000 tons of iron ore concentrate, 400 tons of coke and 3kg of gold bars traded.

The next trading floor was the IME’s oil and petrochemical with 396,578 tons of commodities sold on it, valued at more than $193 million.

Items traded here were 203,300 tons of vacuum bottom, 64,162 tons of bitumen, 55,680 tons of polymeric products, 28,984 tons of chemicals, 40,500 tons of lube cut, 1,927 tons of base oil, 150 tons of insulation, 500 tons of slop wax, 80 tons of argon and 1,000 tons of sulfur.

Also, on its side market, the IME saw trade of 2,417 tons of various commodities.

As previously reported, the value of commodities traded at Iran Mercantile Exchange rose 54 percent during the past Iranian calendar month (March 21-April 20), compared to the same month in the past year.

The exchange’s Public Relations and International Affairs Department reported that 2.7 million tons of commodities worth $1.5 billion were traded at the exchange in the past month, showing also a 350-percent growth in terms of weight as compared to the same month of the previous year.

On its metal and mineral trading floor, the exchange traded within that month 1.421 million tons of commodities worth more than $790 million.

Commodities purchased were 1.097 million tons of steel, 11,780 tons of copper, 360 tons of molybdenum concentrate, 11,325 tons of aluminum, 400 tons of coke, 300,000 tons of iron ore, 200 tons of cast iron and 100 tons of lead.

Oil and petrochemical was the next trading floor on which the IME saw trades of more than 1.318 million tons of various types of commodities in both its domestic and export rings with a trading value of more than $700 million.

On this floor the IME traded 354,567 tons of bitumen, 237,258 tons of polymeric products, 124,668 tons of chemicals, 12,446 tons of base oil and 460,100 tons of vacuum bottom.

There were also 10,040 tons of sulfur, 310 tons of argon, 500 tons of insulation rolls and 111,200 tons of lube cut traded on the same floor.

Moreover, on its agricultural trading floor the IME saw trade of 2,500 kg of saffron.

The last trading floor was the IME’s side market with 3,754 tons of commodities – not listed on the exchange’s main spot market – sold on it.

The value of trades at Iran Mercantile Exchange in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) rose 108 percent compared to the preceding year.

During the past year, about 3.5 quadrillion rials (about $83.5 billion) worth of commodities were traded at the mentioned market.

In the past year, several new records were achieved in terms of the volume and value of transactions in the mentioned market’s various floors including the industrial, petroleum, and petrochemical floors.

IME is one of the four major stock markets of Iran, the other three markets are Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), Iran’s over-the-counter (OTC) market known also as Iran Fara Bourse (IFB), and Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX).

MA/MA