A US-sanctioned Iranian cargo ship has discharged a 60,000-ton shipment of urea at a Brazilian port this week, according to official maritime data reviewed on Thursday in São Francisco do Sul.
The vessel Delruba, part of Tehran’s state-linked IRISL fleet, has been under US Treasury sanctions since June 2020, restricting American and allied entities from providing insurance, financing, or services to it. Port records list the ship at berth 301 of the Terminal Portuário de Santa Catarina since early October.
The arrival took place on Saturday, October 4, and unloading was completed on Wednesday, October 8, according to port authorities. The cargo, valued at roughly $24.4 million, consisted of granulated urea bound for Brazil’s fertilizer industry.
Customs documentation shows the fertilizer originated from Pardis Petrochemical Company, an Iranian producer accused by US officials of financing the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Brazilian investigative outlets reported.
The documents have not been made public, but port schedules corroborate the vessel’s presence.
The US Office of Foreign Assets Control currently lists DELRUBA as a designated vessel, though Pardis Petrochemical itself is not individually blacklisted. The company operates within Iran’s petrochemical sector, a field subject to sweeping secondary restrictions that expose foreign traders to penalties.
Iran, embroiled in disputes with the United States, is the world’s third-largest urea exporter, producing about 4.8 million tons annually—around ten percent of global supply.
If confirmed, the ship’s docking underscores a widening gap between US sanction enforcement and Brazil’s trade engagement with Tehran.
