Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex Co (ISOICO)

Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex Co (ISOICO), the biggest shipping company in Middle East, is an Iranian shipyard, located in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, active as shipbuilder and ship-repairer of different types of vessels and offshore structures. ISOICO is a subsidiary of the state-controlled Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran [IDRO], controlled by the Revolutionary Guards Corps. Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex Co., Tehran, Iran. [ISOICO] is a qualified Iranian company, active as shipbuilder and shiprepairer of different types of vessels and contractor of offshore structures.

It operates from production premises in Persian Gulf (37 km west Bandar Abbas City) easily shipping to any location offshore or onshore. Activity of the Company started in 1995 years ago as a workshop and a yard. The experience gained in more than 3 years of operation enable the yead to enlarge the sphere of activity to plants and mechanical plant components, then to multidisciplinary projects. Although the offshore experiences is short but ISOICO has played an important role in offshore market, constructing in its Bandar Abbas Yard.

As of May 2003, it was projected that when the second phase of Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex Company’s (ISOICO) expansion project was complete, it would be able to construct big VLCC and LNG ships. The contract for the construction of six cargo ships had already brought the complex’s capacity to 70,000 tons.

As of May 2003 ISOICO was constructing two oil carrying vessels capable of transporting 35,000 tons each. The project costs amount to some $50 million and it is being conducted with assistance from Korean advisors. In 2003 Reza Veyseh, Managing Director of the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) signed a contract for the construction of two ships to carry oil consignments between ISOICO and Iran’s National Oil-Carrier Company (NOCC). As of 2003 Iran’s National Oil-Carrier Company (NOCC) owns fifteen 300,000-ton VLCC vessels, five 150,000-ton Suezmax ships, five 98,000-ton vessels, a number of 69,000-ton Panamax ships, several 25,000-ton cargo ships, an LPG-carrier, and an assortment of 27 offshore vessels that provide services to the offshore oil platforms and jetties.

In May 2006 (Mehr News Agency reported that Iran Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries Complex Co. (ISOICO) had managed to conclude an agreement worth $5 billion on the development of marine industries and shipbuilding with Venezuela, noted Iran's deputy industries and mines minister Mohsen Shaterzadeh. Also, Iran, Venezuela and Bolivia also signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the expansion of the shipbuilding industries.

The first Iranian-made large ocean-going vessel, dubbed as "Iran-Arak", was launched to the high seas in the Persian Gulf, on 20 August 2009. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended in the launching ceremony which was held also in the presence of the minister of industries & mines in the Bandar Abbas. After the launching ceremony, the ocean-going ship began its first voyage in the Persian Gulf waters. The Iranian ocean liner is 185 meters long, 30 meters wide, and has the capacity of carrying over 30,000 tons of cargo, or some 2,200 containers. It was made by Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Company (ISOICO). The Iran-Arak was the first of the 5 ocean container ships which Industrial Development & Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO) was scheduled to build. Another ship named Iran-Shahr-e-kord was launched "tentatively". Minister of Industries and Mines Ali-Akbar Mehrabian said in the ceremony that 40 industries are directly related with the shipbuilding industry. For the next two decades, Iran will need to add 500 ships to its fleet, including 120 oil tankers. Domestic production will cost 14 billion Euro, however, if the ships are bought from abroad the cost will triple to 42 billion Euro.

ISOCO had delivered the 30,000-tone “Iran-Arak” ocean liner to the Islamic Republic of Iran and two other similar ships dubbed “Iran-Shahrekord” and “Iran- Kashan” were under construction by the company. Iran planned to launch its second indigenous ocean-going vessel, named Iran-Shahrekord, by the end of March 2012. The Deputy Minister of Industries and Chairman of the IDRO Board of Directors Majid Hedayat said that “Iran-Shahrekord”, the second Iranian ocean-going vessel, would be launched into water by the end of Iranian calendar year, noting that Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex Co (ISOICO) is trying to deliver the vessel by the end of the year in order to fulfill the promises made by Industry, Mine and Trade minister.

A restricted area, as shown on the chart, has been established close North of the dredged channel. Bostanu Shipyard (27°03'N, 55°58'E) is a new shipyard constructed in the protected basin about 5.5 miles WSW of the entrans to Bandar-e Shahid Rejaie, already the site of the ISOICO Persia Hormoz Ship Repair Yard subsidiary, the largest ship repair yard in Iran.