Can Iran replace sea trade with land routes?
Iran is shifting trade toward northern ports and land routes as its southern shipping faces a US blockade. Analysts say the corridors can keep essential goods moving, but cannot replace maritime trade.
Iran has been actively exploring land corridors to replace its reliance on the maritime blockade impacting its southern ports. Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh has been advocating for the activation of Iran's northern borders and shifting a significant portion of imports and exports through railways, land routes, and northern ports.
The country boasts seven land neighbors, access to the Caspian Sea, and numerous routes connecting it to Russia, Central Asia, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, and the Caucasus. Tehran possesses unused capacity in its northern ports, with the capacity to handle over 30 million tons annually, although less than one-third of this capacity is currently in use.
Turkey, the Caspian region, and Jask in Iran offer alternative routes to Europe and other parts of the world. The Astara freight terminal is designed to handle 3.5 to 4 million tons annually, but only managed to process about 345,000 tons in the first five months of 2026. However, land routes come with higher costs and limited capacity compared to maritime transport.
Shipping one container from China to Iran through southern ports costs about $3,000, while the same container transported overland costs roughly $12,000. A prolonged shift to land routes could add approximately $18 billion to Iran's trading costs. While land corridors can help keep essential economic activities alive and deepen Iran's economic ties with various countries, they cannot completely replace maritime trade due to lower capacity, higher costs, and additional political dependencies.
Written by urgent.news from DW English (Business)'s reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
