TEHRAN- The manufacturing of buses in Iran has increased 78 percent in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, an official with the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade announced.

Abdollah Tavakoli Lahijani, the director-general of the ministry’s car industries department, also announced a six-percent rise in the manufacturing of minibuses and middle buses in the mentioned seven-month period.

He said in the past few years, many of the bus production capacities in the country remained unused despite the strong need of the domestic fleet for new buses as well as renovations, and unfortunately, the needs were met only through imports.

“With the pivotal program of the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade since the end of last year and encouraging various organizations to meet the needs through domestic production, in the last seven months, we have seen practically a 78-percent growth in bus production and a six-percent growth in minibus and middle bus manufacturing”, the official added.

“With the continuation of this trend in the coming months and focusing on synergy programs among domestic producers in this supply, we will witness the revival and prosperity of this industry with high potential in the country”, he further underlined.

Iran was ranked the world’s 19th biggest automaker in 2021, according to the report released by the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA).

Based on the OICA data, Iranian automakers produced 894,298 vehicles in 2021 to register a two-percent increase compared to 2020.

Iran's car production in 2021 was higher than many industrialized countries such as Italy with 795,000 units, South Africa with 499,000 units, Poland with 439,000 units, Portugal with 289,000 units, Taiwan with 265,000 units, Belgium with 261,000 units, Austria with 136,000 units, Finland with 93,000 units and Egypt with 23,000 units.

MA/MA