The first of two vessels carrying 1000 tonnes of a Chinese-made chemical that could be a key component in fuel for Iran’s military missile program has anchored outside the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, ship tracking data shows.
It could be a signal that Iran’s missile production is back to business as usual after the devastating, and embarrassing, attacks by Israel on key factories last year.
The ship, Golbon, left the Chinese port of Taicang three weeks ago loaded with most of a 1000-tonne shipment of sodium perchlorate, the main precursor in the production of the solid propellant that powers Iran’s mid-range conventional missiles, according to two European intelligence sources.
The sodium perchlorate could allow for the production of sufficient propellant for some 260 solid rocket motors for Iran’s Kheibar Shekan missiles or 200 of the Haj Qasem ballistic missiles, according to the intelligence sources.
The shipment docked on Thursday and comes as Iran has suffered a series of regional setbacks with the collective defeat suffered by its allies: The fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Hezbollah’s losses in Lebanon.
Following Israel’s strike on Iran’s missile production facilities in October, some Western experts believed it could take at least a year before Iran could resume solid-propellant production. This delivery points to Iran being not far from – or that they could already be back to – the production of its missiles.
The shipment was purchased on behalf of the Procurement Department of the Self Sufficiency Jihad Organisation (SSJO), part of the Iranian body responsible for the development of Iran’s ballistic missiles, according to the sources.
The second ship, Jairan, has yet to be loaded and leave China, with both vessels operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) company, the sources told CNN. The Jairan is due to ferry the remainder of the 1000 tonnes to Iran. The Golbon left the Taichang port for Iran on January 21.
CNN has reached out to IRISL for comment.
The sources could not say if the Chinese government knew of the shipments prior to media reporting about their movement in late January. The delivery of sodium perchlorate in itself is not illegal, nor does it breach Western sanctions.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in January that she was not aware of the specifics of the case, but that China has always abided by its export control laws as well as the country’s international obligations.
The US and UK have levied sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines company, with the US State Department saying the firm is the “preferred shipping line for Iranian proliferators and procurement agents.”
The UK treasury said the company was “involved in hostile activity” by Iran and highlighted its links to the Iranian defence sector.
Both the Golbon and Jairan are under US sanctions.
Meanwhile, China has remained a diplomatic and economic ally for sanctions-hit Iran, decrying “unilateral” US sanctions against the country and welcoming Tehran into Beijing and Moscow-led international blocs like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS.
China also remains by far Iran’s largest energy buyer, though it has not reported purchases of Iranian oil in its official customs data since 2022, according to analysts.
While Iran would need solid propellant for a range of missiles, including smaller air defence weapons, the lion’s share of such deliveries would likely be headed towards Iran’s ballistic missile program, Fabian Hinz, research fellow at the London-based think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told CNN.
Although sodium perchlorate trade is not restricted by Western sanctions, it can be chemically transformed into ammonium perchlorate – a fuel and oxidizer which is a controlled product.
“Ammonium perchlorate is the material that was used in the solid rocket propellants of the Space Shuttle,” Andrea Sella, professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London, told CNN.
“There really aren’t very many alternative things” that the chemical in the Chinese deliveries can be used for, aside from for rocket propellants, fireworks and fuel, he said, adding: “perchlorates have a fairly narrow range of uses.”
The Iranian government declined to comment in response to questions posed by CNN for this article.
