Iran-based Fanavaran Petrochemical Company has sold around 90% of its methanol for loading in July despite a recent ramp-up of Western sanctions against Iran, a company source said Tuesday declining to provide exact volumes.

The company sold two cargoes totalling 20,000-25,000 mt via a tender to two companies based in China. The parcels will load early July from Banda Imam Khomeini, for delivery early August in China.

The source declined to reveal the price but said one cargo was done on a fixed price basis and the other on a floating basis. The company's previous floating tenders have been based on the average of Platts and ICIS methanol assessments, CFR.

Fanavaran also recently awarded another tender to an end-user in India for July-loading methanol, the source said declining to provide details.

Fanavaran will likely issue a third tender for the rest of its July-loading methanol later this month, the source said.

Since May 1, EU-based insurers have not been allowed to provide insurance cover for Iranian petrochemical shipments to non-EU countries. As a result, Iran producers are finding it hard to find vessels to move product out of the country, Platts has reported previously.

According to the source at Fanavaran, freight for a vessel carrying methanol from Iran to China is around $90-105/mt currently, while freight to India costs around $50-60/mt. Before the sanctions were imposed, the cost of moving methanol from Iran to China was around $45-55/mt and it cost around $25-29/mt to move product to India.

Fanavaran has a 1 million mt/year methanol plant in Bandar Imam Khomeini, which the source said is currently operating at 90% of capacity. There is no turnaround planned for the plant this year.

Apart from Fanavaran, Iran's methanol plants comprise a 660,000 mt/year plant on Kharg Island owned by Kharg Petrochemical Company, and two 1.7 million mt/year unit in Assaluyeh owned by Zagros.