24 Day Truck Queues at Borders as Iran's Non-Oil Exports Fall 28 Percent

According to the Financial Times, cited by EcoIran, disruption to Iran's sea routes has pushed truck traffic toward its land borders with Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, turning congestion there into a new trade bottleneck. Wait times for trucks returning from Turkey have reached 24 days, and up to 23 days at one Afghan border crossing, with about 3,700 trucks backed up on the Iranian side of one Turkey border crossing. Iran customs data show non-oil exports fell 28 percent year on year to about 15 billion dollars, and imports fell 26 percent to about 17 billion dollars, in the five months to August 22, 2026 (Mordad 31, 1405). By contrast, Iran Turkey trade rose 19 percent to 3.2 billion dollars in the first half of the year.