The impact of the global economic crisis on non-oil operations of ports in Iran

It is generally accepted that the recent economic crisis of 2007-2010 has caused widespread economic recession in different countries. Since the ports and coastal regions are of great importance to economic infrastructure, this study examined the possible impact resulting from such a global economic crisis on the ports in Iran. First, the annual number of berthing vessels of gross tonnage over a thousand tons as well as loading and unloading of non-oil cargoes and containers were extracted from statistical reports of Ports and Maritime Organization. Then an attempt was made to predict the amount of expected non-oil operation by the advanced quantitative statistical methods in Iran's ports. According to the results obtained from comparing predicted and actual statistics, these ports have been affected by the current economic crisis, but after one-year delay.