TEHRAN, Feb. 13 (Shana) -- Iranian petrochemical plants produced as much as 35 million metric tons of products during the first 9 month of the current Iranian calendar year which began on March 21, Minister of Petroleum said.

According to a report by the planning and hydrocarbons supervision department of the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, Iran produced 44.5 mt of petrochemicals during the previous calendar year, up 9.6% from a year earlier.

The country exported 14.3 million tons of products during the period and sold 10 mt on the domestic market.

Iran's petrochemical production capacity stood at 61.4 mt by mid-September.

Iran launched 7 petrochemical projects during H1 of the current year which included the PBR/SBR unit of Takht Jamshid Plants with a production capacity of 48,000 tons annually, low and high density linear polyethylene units in Lorestan Plants (with the capacity of processing 300,000 tons/y of products) and butane-1 unit of Mahabad Plant.

By SHANA