Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.2/ Trend R.Zamanov
Iran's giant car manufacturers plan to sign a memorandum of understanding to boost their cooperation, deputy director of Irankhodro Company said on Wednesday.
The company's new managing director suggested setting up negotiations with the Saipa Company, the IRIB News Agency quoted Amir-Reza Taghavi as saying.
"Cooperation will aim at boosting the two companies' production," he said. "The draft of the MoU has been prepared and will be signed soon."
Iran exported 1456 cars in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year which started March 21.
The figure shows a 94.34 per cent decrease compared to the same period of the previous year, the Mehr News Agency reported.
The value of the exported cars was around 11 million dollars which is 92.12 per cent less than the same time span last year. The average price of the exported cars was 7845 dollars.
This means Iranian cars are 40 per cent more expensive this year.
Iraq by importing 894 cars was the main destination for Iranian cars. The Arab country accounted for 58.31 per cent of Tehran's total car exports.
Azerbaijan and Ukraine with 15.11 and 10.99 per cent respectively, were the other two major importers of Iranian cars.
Iran produced 989,110 cars in 2012 making the country Asia's eighth largest car manufacturer.
Iran also stood at the world's 18th place, the ISNA News Agency reported.
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.