TEHRAN – Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Alireza Razm Hosseini has said that the country’s automobile production is going to increase by 50 percent in the second half of the current Iranian calendar year (September 22, 2020-March 20, 2021) and the prices of this product will decrease.

Speaking in a meeting with the members of the parliament’s Industries and Mines Committee, the official said: “Immediately after I took office in the Industry Ministry, we started implementing a program to increase car production, and despite the problems that the country's industries are facing, this program is well underway.”

“Recently, also a good financial package has been provided to support automakers in collaboration with the Central Bank of Iran (CBI),” Razm Hosseini was quoted by IRIB.

He further noted that the car prices are following a downward trend and the Industry Ministry’s policy is to make the car market competitive and eliminate intermediaries between producers and consumers.

Pointing to the 23-percent increase in the country’s car production in the first half of the current year (March 20-September 21, 2020), Razm Hosseini said hopefully by the yearend a growth of 50 percent will be achieved.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade, car manufacturing in Iran rose 23.4 percent during the first six months of the current year compared to the same period of time in the past year.

Based on the mentioned data, 468,699 vehicles were manufactured during the mentioned six months.

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, 2020).

EF/MA