Iran to secure position as shipbuilder

Iran Marine Industrial Company SADRA delivered the second Aframax oil ship on Monday in a meeting between Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro after the documents were signed.

The contract was first made in 2007 between the Iranian and Venezuelan governments to build four 94,000-ton tankers, but the order was upgraded to four 113,000-ton ships, which led to changing all the specifics of the order. The contract was finalized afterward in 2008.

The Iranian company began manufacturing Aframax tankers in September 2009 with the following specifications:

For comparison, the giant tanker’s deck is 2.5 times a soccer field and the loading and unloading equipment installed on the ship weighs 3,660 tons. In terms of technical labor volume, 328 km of welding, 56 km of piping, and 125 km of wiring have been carried out on the ship.

Each Aframax ship has 36 crew members, including a captain, officers, technicians, and sailors. The first tanker was launched in 2012 and delivered to Venezuela, but the delivery of the second ship which was slated to for ten months later was postponed for 10 years.

As Venezuelan President Maduro announced, the third tanker will be delivered next year and the fourth one in 2024, completing the contract after 15 years.

Building Aframax class tankers puts Iran among the world’s giant shipbuilders. Iran proved its technical competence in the first attempt to manufacture ships and managed to attract foreign customers and make jobs at home.

A glance at the figures issued by SADRA company shows that building each of these tankers makes 3,000 direct jobs in Bushehr Province, where the manufacturing is done. This can help create more jobs in the future, as Iran is establishing itself as a shipbuilder if the trend continues in the coming years.

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