The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that two Iranian cargo ships may be attempting to transport key chemicals for missile propellant from China. The ship is expected to depart from China in the coming weeks.
The report is based on “information from security authorities in two Western countries.”
This information appears to serve as a clear warning to Iran and China about these vessels.
According to the report, “The Iranian-flagged vessels Golbon and Jairan were carrying more than 1,000 tons of sodium perchlorate, which is used in the production of ammonium perchlorate, the main component of solid propellant for missiles. It is expected that
Iran experienced some setbacks last year in producing missile propellant. Axios reported in October that Israel had attacked 12 “planetary mixers” that were “used to produce solid fuel for long-range ballistic missiles,” Reuters reported.
Additionally, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said, “Early satellite images reveal that Israel has destroyed solid-fuel missile production facilities in Parchin, Khojir, and Shahrood.”
IRGC receives missile fuel
According to a report in the Financial Times, the sodium perchlorate “could produce 960 tonnes of ammonium perchlorate, the equivalent of 70% of the propellant in solid-fuel missiles.” That amount of ammonium perchlorate can produce 1,300 tons of propellant, enough to fuel 260 Iranian medium-range missiles such as the Keibar Shekan and Haj Qasem.
“Ammonium perchlorate is one of the chemicals regulated by the international anti-proliferation agency, the Missile Technology Control Regime.”
Solid rocket fuel contains oxidizing agents such as potassium perchlorate and sodium perchlorate. The Keibar Shekkan is an Iranian medium-range solid-fuel ballistic missile.
According to reports, the chemicals will be sent to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
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This article in the Financial Times is very detailed and points out that they hope this shipment will be stopped or blocked by Chinese or other authorities. US President Donald Trump’s administration may also be paying attention.
The chemicals were contained in 34 20-foot containers aboard the Gorbon, according to people cited in the report.
The ship left China’s Daishan Island on Tuesday. The island is located just south of Shanghai, and the article states that Jairan is “scheduled to leave China in early February with 22 containers.”
He added that it would take three weeks for the ship to reach Iran. “Officials said the chemicals were loaded onto the Golbong at the port of Taicang, just north of Shanghai, and bound for Bandar Abbas, a port in southern Iran on the Persian Gulf.
“According to data from ship tracker Marine Traffic, the Gorbon spent at least several days off the coast of Daishan Island before setting sail on Tuesday,” the report said.
The Chinese embassy in Washington said it was not familiar with the situation, and Iran did not comment for this article.
Meanwhile, in Davos, Mohammed Javad Zarif, currently Iran’s Vice President for Strategic Affairs, spoke about Iran’s current position in the region.
Zarif downplayed Iran’s role in supporting proxies and said Israel would continue to face “resistance” even if it hurt Hezbollah and Hamas.
He also minimized the damage done to Iran’s air defenses in October. “The story about the destruction of our air defenses is a story and there are reasons behind it…We suffered, but that does not mean we lost our air defenses,” Zarif said.
Iran and its proxies have experienced setbacks in producing rocket fuel.
For example, an Israeli military raid in September 2024 destroyed a solid propellant rocket motor production site in Masyaf, Syria.
The site was used by the Syrian regime led by then-President Bashar al-Assad and was linked to Iran’s role in the region. Assad’s regime collapsed on December 8th.
The attack also destroyed an industrial mixer used for solid rocket fuel. Solid rockets can launch faster than liquid fuel rockets.
Solid rockets are cheap, easy to store and maintain, and easy to deploy and use.
However, they are not as easy to control as liquid fuel rockets. They are faster to deploy, reducing the time it takes to detect that they are set up and ready to launch.
