Third Iranian Merchant Ship To Sail for Venezuela in May

Orinoco Tribune, February 23, 2023 — A third Iranian ship with export goods will leave for Venezuela in early May using the commercial shipping line between the two countries.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL) has announced that a third merchant ship with Iranian export products destined for Venezuela will depart Iranian waters in early May, the agency reported on Wednesday, February 22, via the Iranian official news agency IRNA.

Since the inauguration of the regular maritime transport line between Iran and Venezuela, at the request of Iranian firms and businessmen, two ships with Iranian products have anchored in Venezuelan ports in recent months.

Currently, every two months, a container ship leaves the southern coast of Iran for Venezuela. With the implementation of the current service, traditional export costs are lowered for each container.

To date, the two largest Iranian automakers, Iran Khodro (IKCO) and Saipa, have used the direct shipping line to transfer thousands of cars to the South American country.

In January, a thousand Iranian-made cars arrived in Venezuela, and another two thousand are set to arrive within the framework of agreements signed between the two countries, as announced by the Venezuelan Minister of Transportation, Ramón Velásquez.

The launch of the regular maritime transport line is carried out at a time when the alliance between Iran and Venezuela is consolidating, constituting a challenge for the Western powers, as the two nations counteract the illegal economic blockades—euphemistically referred to as “sanctions”—imposed on them.