TEHRAN- Manufacturing of passenger cars in Iran has increased 20.4 percent during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-October 21), compared to the same period of time in the past year, according to the data released by Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry.

The ministry’s data indicate that 478,800 passenger cars have been manufactured in the country during the seven-month period.

Iranian carmakers have also manufactured 46,797 vans during the first seven months of the present year, which was 22.7 percent higher than the figure for the same time span of the past year.

According to the ministry’s data, 996 buses and minibusses have been also manufactured in the mentioned time span, indicating a nine percent drop, while 11,273 tractors have been manufactured, showing 4.6 percent growth.

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.

MA/MA