The vessels – the Shabdis and the Barzin – are operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), a state-owned carrier under sanctions by the United States, Britain and the European Union. Washington has accused IRISL of transporting materials used in Iran’s ballistic missile program.
The ships recently docked at Gaolan port in Zhuhai on China’s southeastern coast, a facility experts say handles large volumes of industrial chemicals, including sodium perchlorate, a key precursor used to produce solid rocket fuel.
Experts tracking the vessels said the cargo likely includes sodium perchlorate, which Iran requires for missile propellants.
“Given the track record, the most parsimonious explanation is that they’re loading the same commodity they’ve been shuttling for the past year-plus,” Isaac Kardon, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said.
Kardon said Beijing could have delayed the ships’ departure using administrative or customs procedures but did not do so.
“China could have held these vessels at port, imposed an administrative delay, invented a customs hold – any number of bureaucratic tools, but didn’t,” he said, calling the decision notable at a time when the United States and Iran are engaged in direct military confrontation.
As of Saturday, both ships were in the South China Sea. The Barzin had anchored off the coast of Malaysia while en route to Iran’s Bandar Abbas port, about 4,000 miles away, where it is expected to arrive next week. The Shabdis is sailing toward Iran’s Chabahar port, with an estimated arrival of March 16.
Both destinations lie along the Strait of Hormuz and host major Iranian naval facilities.
US sanctions announced last year targeted the transfer of sodium perchlorate and other chemicals from China to Iran, citing their use in solid propellants for ballistic missiles. Sodium perchlorate is used to produce ammonium perchlorate, a core component in missile fuel.
U.S. officials have long accused China of allowing transfers of missile-related materials to Iran, allegations Beijing has denied, saying the United States exaggerates commercial or dual-use trade.
Since the start of the year, at least a dozen other IRISL vessels have visited Gaolan port, with draft data suggesting most departed carrying cargo. Some of those ships later unloaded at Iran’s Shahid Rajaee port near Bandar Abbas, the country’s main container terminal.
The latest departures come days after US and Israeli strikes targeted Iranian missile facilities and other military infrastructure.
Analysts say that damage may have increased Iran’s need for rocket fuel components.
“Tehran’s need for propellant precursors just went from urgent to existential,” Kardon said.
