Sino-Iran trade dropped to USD 2.07 billion in January 2016, showing a 41% year-on-year decrease, the Tasnim News Agency reported Chinas customs office as saying on Saturday.
Chinese-Iranian trade stood at USD 3.5 billion back in January 2015.
According to the report, exports from China to Iran declined to $1.3 billion in January 2016 from $2.25 billion a year earlier, showing a 42% decrease.
Also, Chinas imports from Iran dropped to $1.25 billion USD in the same period, showing a year-on-year 39% slump.
The decline in the bilateral trade comes against a backdrop of plunging crude oil prices in recent months.
Beijing is the top customer of Irans crude and is seen as Tehrans largest trade partner.
Bilateral trade between the two countries stood at UDS 31.09 billion in 2015, witnessing a 34% decrease compared to the previous year.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="555"]
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (R) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping attend a press conference in Tehran on January 23, 2016. (AFP image)[/caption]Iran and China have agreed to build economic ties worth up to $600 billion within the next 10 years.
The two countries have already unveiled plans to revive the "Silk Road" an ancient trans-Asian trade route connecting the east to Europe and the Mediterranean Sea.
The "Silk Road", envisioned as a rail and sea route, is seen as Beijing's new initiative to access extensive delivery routes to the Middle East and Eurasia through Iran.
Iran is strategically located in the Middle East, sharing land borders with 15 nations and sea channels on its northern and southwestern coasts.
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"Silk Road" train arrived at Tehran Railway Station on February 15, 2016. (AFP photo)[/caption]Earlier this month, a long-distance cargo train traveled from China to Iran.
It took the 32-container cargo train two weeks to complete the 10,399km journey from Chinas eastern Zhejiang province to Tehran through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan one month less than the sea route from Shanghai to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
By Press TV
