Iran exported more than 7.65Mt of cement and clinker during the first seven months of the current Iranian year (21 March –22 October 2018). Exports amounted to a 10.2 per cent increase compared with the same period of last year.

Abdolreza Sheikhan, the secretary of Iran's Cement Association said cement accounted for 3.8Mt of the exports. More than 50 per cent of the clinker and cement exports went to Iraq and Afghanistan over the period, said Sheikhan.

Also, around 247,000t of cement were exported to Central Asian countries, mostly to Uzbekistan, via railroad through the Sarakhs border crossing in Iran's Khorasan Razavi province during the seven months, Mohammad Hadi Ziyaeimehr, director general of Khorasan Razavi Railroad Organisation, said.

Ziyaeimehr noted that Sarakhs border crossing accounts for 90 per cent of Iran's cement exports through railroads.