Chinese companies are planning to invest €427m ($591m) on the construction of the Lordegan fertiliser chemicals complex in the southwest of Iran.

According to Iran’s state-owned Mehr News Agency, the complex, which will have a capacity of 1.15 million tonnes a year (t/y) of urea and ammonia, is now 32 per cent complete.

The agency did not name the Chinese investors, but said companies from China had renewed interest in financing projects in Iran since the Islamic Republic’s nuclear agreement with world powers in November 2013.

Abbas Sheri Moqaddam, managing director of the project’s owner National Iranian Petrochemical Company, says Iran needs $31bn to complete 60 semi-completed petrochemicals projects.