China fuelling Iran’s ballistic missilesSanctioned vessels carrying enough chemicals to produce hundreds of projectiles travel from Chinese to Iranian ports
Ships believed to be carrying Chinese chemicals for missile fuel have arrived in Iran, raising questions about Beijing’s support for the regime.
Four sanctioned Iran-flagged vessels have docked at Iranian ports since the war broke out, Telegraph analysis of shipping data show.
Another ship was floating offshore near Iranian waters, according to MarineTraffic, a ship-tracking and maritime analytics provider.
The ships are thought to be carrying sodium perchlorate, a precursor material used to produce solid-fuel propellants for missiles.
The vessels departed from Zhuhai’s Gaolan port, which is home to some of the largest liquid chemical storage terminals in China.
The Telegraph’s analysis, reviewed by experts, suggests that the vessels could have transported enough sodium perchlorate to produce hundreds of ballistic missiles.
It is not clear whether Iran has maintained the capacity to build new weapons after an extensive five-week bombing campaign by the US and Israel.
Miad Maleki, a former US treasury official working on Middle East sanctions, said: “Still, it’s definitely an indication that Iran is desperately trying to resupply, and to address the inventory shortage of rocket and missile fuel.
“Right now, they have a desperate need as they engage in a direct conflict. They are using their missiles; it is expected to see a surge in Iran importing these chemicals right now.”
US intelligence officials told CNN that up to half of all missile launchers in Iran remain intact despite claims to the contrary by Donald Trump and Israel.
All five ships identified by The Telegraph are part of the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line Group (IRISL), which is sanctioned by the US, UK, EU, Switzerland and other European nations.
Mr Maleki, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, a US research institute, said the same ships involved in such shipments had been observed coming from the Gaolan port in the past.
He noted that it would be unlikely for Iran to use sanctioned vessels for humanitarian aid, as goods could easily be transported on non-sanctioned tankers to avoid running into issues along the way, particularly if they had to bunker at foreign ports.
Four vessels – the Hamouna, Barzin, Shabdis and Rayen – have all arrived since March 22, after spending, on average, three weeks at sea in transit. A fifth – the Zardis – appears close to docking, and is floating in waters near Iran with an initial estimated arrival for April 2.
The Hamouna, previously called the Canreach – vessel name changes are used to skirt global sanctions – had the longest journey, departing on Feb 19, about a week before the war began. The vessel then spent five weeks sailing global waters, before arriving in Iran’s port city of Bandar Abbas on March 26. The vessel was probably delayed because of the outbreak of war.
In early 2025, shipments on two sanctioned vessels in the IRISL fleet – the Golban and the Jairan – carried enough bags of sodium perchlorate to yield anywhere from 102 to 157 missiles, according to Prof Jeffrey Lewis, a leading arms control expert in the US and a professor at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies.
The vessels that The Telegraph tracked are about double in size to those two ships, and could potentially stack far more pallets containing sodium perchlorate.
Using the known amounts on the Golban and Jairan as a guide, it can be estimated that Iran, in theory, may have imported enough raw material to produce an additional 785 missiles.
That means Iran could easily continue firing 10 to 30 missiles a day for another month, as estimated by war monitors and analysts.
However, given the continued bombing of Iran by the US and Israel, production facilities may be destroyed by the time the chemicals are delivered, noted Prof Lewis.
But “the existence of the sodium perchlorate shipments tells us that Iran is still producing missiles – as long as they are happening, that seems to signal the Iranians have a production capability”.
Iran may have also received more than five vessels’ worth of materials from China in wartime.
Vessels can turn off their automatic tracking systems, stopping the transmission of data, such as vessel position, course and destination, which can make them almost impossible to follow.
Most of the vessels tracked by The Telegraph, for instance, appear to have turned off those systems at some point along their journeys, limiting the amount of open-source positional data available.
For two vessels, the destination port, as reported by the ship itself, was false – claiming to be Vietnam, though ship-tracking data clearly put them in Iran at the end of their journeys.
Other information to help identify sanctioned ships can also be “easily spoofed, with infinite new tricks and innovations with respect to ship registries, flags, paint and ownership structures”, said Isaac Kardon, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a DC-based think tank.
Most vessels tracked by The Telegraph arrived in the port city of Bandar Abbas, with only one docking in Chabahar. Upon arrival, cargo could be trucked anywhere in Iran for use.
In April 2025, an explosion hit Bandar Abbas – so powerful that it was felt more than 30 miles away. At least 70 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured.
Reddish smoke billowed over the area, suggesting the burning of a chemical compound., suggesting the burning of a chemical compound.
A source within Iran’s security establishment later told the New York Times that the explosion had been caused by sodium perchlorate, which is used to make ammonium perchlorate – solid propellant for ballistic missiles.
Three days after the port explosion, the US released new sanctions against Iran and China “for their role in a network procuring ballistic missile propellant ingredients”, specifically listing sodium perchlorate.
Mr Maleki said: “Iran has historically imported these chemicals very routinely, because they need them. They have rockets and missiles that they provide to Russia; they sell to the Russians for the war in Ukraine; they provide to their proxy groups in Iraq.”
That China continues to allow these shipments during wartime “shows that this is a regular flow”, said Mr Kardon. “They are exploiting the fact that these are commercial goods, commercial cargoes. They aren’t shipping the missiles or warheads themselves; anything that is lethal.”
The Telegraph