Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 28
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The managing director of the Iranian giant car manufacturer Iran Khodro(IKCO), Hashem Yekeh Zareh has paid a visit to France to hold talks with Peugeot company officials.
The three-day visit, which was aimed on pursuing the issue of cooperation agreement with the French giant carmaker, took place last week but was not shared with the media.
A letter of intent (LOI) between IKCO and Peugeot was supposed to be signed during the Yekeh Zareh's visit to France, Iran 's Fars news agency reported April 28.
The LOI is a document outlining an agreement between two or more parties before the agreement is finalized.
It is not clear yet whether the LOI was signed or not.
Early in March Yekeh Zareh said that the IKCO and Peugeot have agreed on establishing a joint car manufacturing plant in Iran.
The Iranian carmaker will have a 50-percent share from the deal, Yekeh Zareh added.
The new company will produce new car models, he said, adding 30 percent of the jointly manufactured cars will be exported.
Yekeh Zareh further said that if Peugeot fails to export the mentioned figure, its share from Iran 's domestic market also would be decreased proportionally.
French car makers Renault SA and PSA Peugeot Citroën have taken initial steps toward resuming deliveries to Iran, previously one of their biggest markets.
Iran's auto industry has been a major casualty of penalties imposed over the Islamic republic's nuclear program, with production plummeting and workers laid off because of the ensuing economic slowdown.
US sanctions on the auto industry in 2013 were the main cause, on top of American and European bans on Iranian bank transactions abroad. The mentioned sanctions were lifted after an interim nuclear agreement was reached between Iran and world powers and a final accord is still on the horizon, raising the prospect of better times for the industry.
Edited by CN
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