Iran car output hits 576,000

Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 26 By Rahim Zamanov - Trend: Iran produced 576,663 cars in first ten months of the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 21, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported on January 26. Some 489,182 sedan cars, 81,349 pickup trucks, 5,711 trucks, 341 buses, and 1 minibuses were produced in the country in the mentioned period. Iran produced 74,211 cars in the tenth calendar month of the current Iranian calendar year (December 23 - January 22). Iran exported 4,824 sedans during the first nine months of the current solar year (starting on March 21) which indicates an 88.97 percent decrease compared to the same period of last year. The value of the exported cars was around $33 million which is 87.24 percent less than in the same period of last year, according to the Iranian Custom Administration's latest monthly report released on Dec. 28. The average car price was $6,794, which indicates a 15.72 percent increase this year. Iran has exported 2542, 1147 and 612 sedan cars to Iraq, Azerbaijan and Egypt respectively during the period. Iran also imported 44,647 sedan cars, worth $ 924 million in the mentioned period, which indicates an increase of 49.24 and 31.35 percent respectively in terms of volume and value compared to the first nine months of last year. The average price of imported cars was $20,704 which indicates an 11.99 percent decrease in price compared to last year. Iran has imported 33,899 cars from the UAE, 7,099 cars from China and 1,529 cars from Kuwait during the period. Iran produced 989,110 cars in 2012, which made the country Asia's eighth largest car manufacturer. Iran also stood at the world's 18th place. China, Japan, South Korea, India, Thailand, Turkey, and Indonesia were Asia's seven largest car manufacturers. Iran's automobile output faced 40 per cent decrease in 2012. The country was Asia's 5th largest car manufacturer in 2011, with a total output of 1,648,505. Increasing prices of raw materials and foreign currencies are the main problems that the car manufacturers are facing with. The world's total car production stood at 84,141,209 cars in 2012, which is 5.3 per cent more than its preceding year. Follow us on Twitter @TRENDNewsAgency