Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 31
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
About $1.1 billion worth of car parts were smuggled into Iran during the last fiscal year (ended on March 2016), Arash Mohebbinejad, secretary of the Iranian car part makers union, said.
He further said Iran’s legal car part imports stood at some $1 billion during the period, PersianKhodro news portal reported.
He further expressed concern about Iran’s car parts import, saying some $821 million worth of car parts were imported during the first half of the current fiscal year, which is 36 percent more year-on-year.
According to Mohebbinejad, Iranian carmakers that produce Chinese vehicles share $300 million of the aforementioned value.
Iran’s car parts industry is suffering serious economic crisis due to huge volume of the car parts imported to the country through legal and illegal channels, Mohebbinejad said, adding that some Iranian car makers prefer to use cheap Indian and Chinese parts rather than home-made car parts.
Earlier in May, Mohebbinejad said the car part manufacturing units in the country are working only at 50 percent of their output capacity due to economic problems.
Iran’s car output reached 982,337 units in 2015, according to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA). The figure indicated a 9.9-percent fall year-on-year.
Iran was the world’s 20th biggest car manufacturer by end of 2015, while the country stood at the 18th place in the first half of 2015.
The Islamic Republic manufactured 884,866 sedans and 97,471 commercial vehicles in 2015.
The 2014 production statistics by the OICA indicates that Iran’s car production increased by 46.7 percent and stood at 1.1 million cars.