Summary

Iran trade plummets under US blockade, bureaucratic errors By Published Sep. 17, 2026, 4:56 p.m. ET See more of our coverage in your search results.Add The New York Post on Google Iran’s exports and trade continue to plummet — even as it tries to circumvent the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz by shipping oil and goods overland. While the Islamic republic moved to bolster its land-based trade under pressure from the US naval blockade, the rush to do so has caused more than 3,700 cargo trucks to be stuck at its borders with Turkey and Pakistan, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported. “Neither Iran is taking responsibility for the situation, nor is Pakistan allowing us to unload our cargo,” one driver claimed in a video posted by the Union of Truckers and Drivers Organizations Across Iran. The self-inflicted wound has seen the drivers wait for up to 20 days to get through the border with their cargo of iron ore, cement and gas, all while suffering record-high fuel prices themselves. The truckers’ union said the drivers were also going days without access to food, water or sanitation as the workers also contend with 120-degree heat. Iranian drivers are also facing trouble at the border with Iraq after temporarily closed terminals over the weekend due to the attack on Saudi Arabia’s pipeline from within Iraq’s borders. Iran’s non-oil exports fell by nearly 30% to just $15 billion as of Aug. 16, about five months into the Iranian calendar year, according to Tehran’s records. The regime had exported about $45 billion in non-oil goods during the previous fiscal year. Iran’s oil exports have also taken a dive, to just about 210,000 barrels a day in August, the lowest level since 2020 and nearly 10% of what it was before the war began, according to maritime intelligence firm Vortexa. The issues are also affecting Iran’s imports and leading to even higher prices for goods at a time when inflation is running rampant in the country of 93 million people. Imports in Iran fell to about $17 billion as of August, about 25% less than what was reported in the same period last year. Mohammad Reza Khodarahm, an import-sector expert, warned that the bottlenecks on land, including constraints with Iran’s rail system to China, now accounts for nearly a third of the price for goods coming into Iran, Tehran’s economic paper Donya-e-Eqtesad reported. Iran has been able to mitigate some of the pain by increasing the flow of goods through the Caspian Sea and its railroad system connected with China. Transits along the Caspian Sea have shot up by 70% in the past five months, with Tehran bringing in wheat, corn and cooking oil from Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported. Meanwhile, its train hulls to eastern China are now operating every three to four days as opposed to its pre-war levels of only once-a-week, according to the Tehran Times. Iran’s hardliners have vowed that the country can outlast any economic pains inflicted on it as the regime and its terror proxies wreak havoc on oil and cargo transports on both sides of the Arabian Peninsula.