MNA � About 55 million tons of oil and non-oil commodities were loaded and unloaded in the Shahid Rajaei Port, southern Hormozgan Province, during the past nine months of the current fiscal year (March-December 2018), a senior official at Ports and Maritime Organization said.

Director General of Hormozgan Ports and Maritime Organization, Allah-Morad Afifipour, added that of the total amount, over 36.86 million tons were non-oil commodities, some while 18.55 million tons were the oil and petroleum products.

Previous reports quoting Afifipour put the number of TEU containers loaded and unloaded in the Rajaei Port during the same period at 1.4 million.

However, the figure indicates some 29% fall in comparison to the similar spell of time last year.

�Container transship through the port amounted to 181,683 TEU containers and the container transit to the regional ports stood at 257,352 during the past nine months,� the official noted.

Located along the Persian Gulf and near the Strait of Hormoz, Shahid Rajaei Port is Iran�s biggest container hub, handling almost 80% of the country�s container activities.

The strategic port can accommodate Panamax cargo ships with a capacity of more than 12,000 TEU. The port�s capacity is envisaged to increase to 8 million TEU when the construction operations are complete.