Tehran, Iran, Feb. 13
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad – Trend:
SAIPA, Iran’s second biggest carmaker, has echoed plans to expand cooperation in the automotive industry with Azerbaijan.
“We have put on agenda the issue of long-term cooperation with Azerbaijan and will definitely expand out cooperation with the neighboring country in the automotive sector,” CEO of SAIPA Mohsen Qasem-Jahroudi has told Trend.
He further added that SAIPA is planning to add a new Renault brand to its products and the Iranian company is currently in talks with the French giant.
Speaking about the capabilities of the domestic car parts manufacturers, he said that Iranian producers have become capable of exporting their products.
The sales representative of Iranian carmaker SAIPA in Azerbaijan previously told Trend that the firm plans to import about 200 cars in the first half of the current year.
Mehrdad Sangini, the head of Atlas Motor firm which is the sales representative of SAIPA in Azerbaijan, said that his firm launched the imports of SAINA brands since early January.
“The firm currently imports about 16-32 cars on a monthly basis but the figure will probably increase in the second half of the year with more SAIPA brands,” he said.
Over the past several years, Azerbaijan imported about 3,000 SAIPA cars but due to market situation the imports were suspended in 2016 and 2017, Sangini added.
Saying that the firm is now offering SAINA at 14,000 AZN for cash purchase but the customers have a chance to acquire the cars through leasing, as well.
Over the first nine months of the current Iranian year (starting March 20), SAIPA was the second largest producer of the country after Iran Khodro producing 261,100 passenger cars, indicating a jump of 16.7 percent year on year.
Over 1.253 million cars were produced in Iran during the first 10 months of the current Iranian fiscal year, a rise of 15.2 percent year on year.
SAIPA’s domestic rival, IranKhodro, and its Azerbaijani partner, AzermMash, are expected to inaugurate a joint car plant in March 2018.
The car plant is being built in Azerbaijan’s Neftchala Industrial Site on the basis of an agreement signed with Iranian leading automobile manufacturer Iran Khodro, with a nominal capacity of 10,000 units per year.
