TEHRAN- Car manufacturing in Iran rose 23.4 percent during the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-September 21), compared to the same period of time in the past year, the data released by the Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade showed.

As reported by ILNA, 468,699 vehicles have been manufactured during the first half of this year.

During this period, 425,925 passenger cars were produced in the country, registering a growth of 21.9 percent compared to the first six months of the previous year.

The production of trucks reached 39,519 units in the said time span, which has increased by 40.4 percent compared to the last year’s same period.

Car manufacturing in Iran had also risen 21 percent during the first five months of the present year (March 20-August 21).

Iranian carmakers manufactured 360,599 vehicles during the five-month period of this year, while the figure was 268,966 in the same time span of the past year.

Three major Iranian carmakers, namely Iran Khodro Company (IKCO), SAIPA Group, and Pars Khodro, manufactured 863,263 vehicles during the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19).

During the previous year, IKCO manufactured 393,812 vehicles, of which 35,953 were produced in the last month Esfand (February 20-March 19).

Production by SAIPA stood at 363,379, of which 23,696 vehicles were manufactured during the last month.

Pars Khodro manufactured 106,072 cars during the past year. Production in Esfand reached 9,300 vehicles.

Iran has been following a program for supporting domestic manufacturing of auto parts since due to the U.S. sanctions the country’s automakers have been facing some problems in supplying their needed parts and equipment.

EF/MA