TEHRAN – Car manufacturing by Iran’s major carmakers rose 11.2 percent during the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21- July 22), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, the data released by Codal website showed.

Three major carmakers, namely Iran Khodro Company (IKCO), SAIPA Group, and Pars Khodro, manufactured 289,311 vehicles during the first four months of this year, rising from 260,235 cars manufactured in the same time span of the past year.

During the said four months, IKCO manufactured 145,045 vehicles, registering a rise of 37.7 percent compared to the same period last year.

SAIPA manufactured 109,258 vehicles in the mentioned period, 7.2 percent less than the figure for the four-month period of the previous year.

Pars Khodro also manufactured 35,008 vehicles in the period under review, 5.6 percent lower than the figure for the same time span of the past year.

Three mentioned major Iranian carmakers, IKCO, SAIPA, and Pars Khodro, had manufactured 900,714 vehicles in the previous year (ended on March 20), which was 4.3 percent more than the figure of its preceding year.

According to Codal data, during the past year, IKCO manufactured 480,338 vehicles, which was 21.9 percent more than the output in its preceding year, which was 393,812 vehicles.

SAIPA manufactured 317,321 vehicles, with a 12.6-percent fall from 363,379 vehicles manufactured in 1398. And Pars Khodro manufactured 103,055 vehicles in the past year, showing a 2.8-percent drop from the output of its previous year, which was 106,072 vehicles.

Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry’s programs for the current Iranian calendar year show that the manufacturing of 1.2 million cars has been put on the agenda.

According to the Industry Ministry data, since Iranian automakers had produced 984,200 such vehicles in the previous calendar year, the country’s car output is planned to increase by over 21 percent in the current year.

The production of 8,968 buses, minibuses, and vans is also planned for the current year, which would be an increase of 378 percent in this sector. Last year, domestic automakers managed to produce only 1,873 units of such vehicles.

As recently stated by the director-general of automotive department of Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry, domestic manufacturing of each car saved the country $400-$500 in the past year.

Soheil Memarbashi said that it was achieved through setting up the domestic production desks by the ministry in line with strengthening domestic production.

The ministry has planned a $10-billion saving programs through domestic production during three Iranian calendar years of 1398, 1399, and 1400 (since March 2019 until March 2022), of which $1.4 billion is for the automotive industry, the official stated.

To this end, four desks have been already held, while the fifth one was not still held due to the coronavirus pandemic, he said, adding the related contracts were signed and 14 out of the 20 specified parts have been already manufactured domestically.

MA/MA