Iran Orders Material From China for Hundreds of Ballistic Missiles
Tehran wants to bolster military capacity amid contentious nuclear talks with U.S.
June 5, 2025 The Wall Street Journal
Key Points
Iran seeks to bolster regional allies and its arsenal amid nuclear talks with the U.S.; its missile program suffered setbacks in October after an Israeli attack.
Iran has ordered thousands of tons of ballistic-missile ingredients from China, people familiar with the transaction said, seeking to rebuild its military prowess as it discusses the future of its nuclear program with the U.S.
Shipments of ammonium perchlorate are expected to reach Iran in coming months and could fuel hundreds of ballistic missiles, the people said. Some of the material would likely be sent to militias in the region aligned with Iran, including Houthis in Yemen, one of the people said.
Iran wants to bolster regional allies and rebuild its arsenal while it pushes deeper into contentious talks with the Trump administration over its nuclear program. Iran has continued to expand its stockpiles of uranium enriched to just below weapons grade and ruled out negotiating limits on its missile program.
President Trump said he discussed the negotiations in a call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. “Time is running out on Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons,” Trump wrote Wednesday in a social-media post.
An Iranian entity called Pishgaman Tejarat Rafi Novin Co. ordered the missile ingredients in the past few months from Hong Kong-based Lion Commodities Holdings Ltd., people familiar with the order said.
Lion Commodities director Nelson Barba didn’t respond to a request for comment. Pishgaman couldn’t be reached for comment.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations didn’t respond to a request for comment. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said China wasn’t aware of the contract.
“The Chinese side has always exercised strict control over dual-use items in accordance with China’s export control laws and regulations and its international obligations,” the spokesperson said.
Iran has been looking for ways to rebuild its so-called Axis of Resistance network of militias after Israel pummeled Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza and the Assad regime fell in Syria. U.S. and Israeli strikes on the Houthis damaged the group’s capabilities, though they still threaten Israel.
Iran recently transferred ballistic missiles to Shia militia groups in Iraq, who could target Israel and U.S. forces in the region they have previously attacked, the people confirmed. The missile transfers were previously reported by the Times of London.
After the U.S. in 2020 killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, Iraqi Shia groups fired at least a dozen ballistic missiles at the U.S. Al Asad air base in the country.
Iran has one of the biggest ballistic missile programs in the region, U.S. officials have said. Ammonium perchlorate, an oxidizer used in fireworks, is essential to the solid propellant used in Iran’s most effective ballistic missiles.
Earlier this year, two Iranian ships docked in China were loaded with more than 1,000 tons of sodium perchlorate, a precursor for producing ammonium perchlorate. The material was delivered to Iranian ports in mid-February and late March, according to shipping trackers. The sodium perchlorate was enough to fuel around 260 short-range missiles, officials said.
The new, larger contract for ammonium perchlorate could be enough for Iran to produce 800 missiles, one official said. The contract was signed months ago, likely before Trump said he had proposed nuclear talks to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in early March.
The U.S. Treasury on April 29 sanctioned six people and six entities based in Iran and China for their role in “procuring ballistic missile propellant ingredients,” including sodium perchlorate, for Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Two weeks later, it added sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong entities and people for aiding Iran’s ballistic missile industry.
Treasury in May added sodium perchlorate to the list of materials it says are being used for Iran’s military, nuclear or ballistic missile programs. “Chinese entities and individuals have provided support to Iran’s ballistic missile program, as well as to the Houthis’ missile and UAV production efforts, which is why we continue to identify and sanction them,” a State Department official said.
In November 2022, U.S. naval forces said they intercepted a vessel in the Gulf of Oman carrying over 70 tons of ammonium perchlorate on a route commonly used by Iran to send weapons to the Houthis in Yemen.
Israel severely damaged Iran’s ability to produce new solid propellant missiles in October by taking out around a dozen so-called planetary mixers, used to blend components for the missiles.
Iran has started to repair the mixers, one official said. That means much of the material imported from China could remain in Iran but some is expected to be sent to militia including the Houthis, the official said.
Iran likely needs material from abroad to avoid bottlenecks in its domestic production capabilities, said Fabian Hinz, a military analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Storing the combustible material creates risks. An April explosion at the Shahid Rajaee port, which handles most of Iran’s container trade, killed dozens of people, state media said. The explosion was the result of mishandling of explosive material by a unit of the IRGC’s Quds Force. At least some of the sodium perchlorate imported from China earlier this year was lost in the explosion, one official said.
“These substances are a major fire and explosive hazard,” Hinz said. “Iran’s defense industrial complex does not have a strong track record in ensuring safety standards.”
Last month, Iran’s customs authorities issued an order to accelerate the clearing of “hazardous materials” through customs.
Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com
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Appeared in the June 6, 2025, print edition as 'Iran Taps China for Fuel for Ballistic Missiles'.Iran ordered thousands of tons of ballistic-missile ingredients from China, people familiar with the transaction said, as it seeks to rebuild its military prowess after conflict with Israel.
Shipments of ammonium perchlorate could fuel hundreds of ballistic missiles. Some material could be sent to Iran-aligned militias, one of the people said.