Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 3 / Trend, N. Umid
Iran produced about 291,638 cars in the first six months of the current solar year, which started on March 21, Iranian Jahanesanat newspaper reported.
Some 247,315 sedan cars, 40,629 pickup trucks, 3,485 trucks, 184 buses, and 25 minibuses were produced in the country during the period.
According to the report, Iran has produced 64,316 cars, including 54,526 sedan cars during last Iranian calendar month (August 23- September 22).
Speaking of car models that were produced in Iran during the mentioned period, the country made 93768 Pride models, 35048 Peugeot Pars models, 24 964 Peugeot 405 models, 19816 Samand cars, 15803 Tiba, 11597 Tondar 90, 9629 Renault, and of 10721 Rana sedan car models.
Iran produced some 1,013,561 cars including 141,564 commercial vehicles during the 2012 and stood at the 16th place among the world's car producers.
Iran's automobile output faced a 40 percent decrease in 2012. The country was Asia's fifth largest car manufacturer in 2011, with a total output of 1,649,311. Increasing prices of raw materials and foreign currencies are the main problems the car manufacturers are facing.
It should be recalled that on July 1, the U.S. imposed a new round of sanctions against anyone involved in Iran's auto industry and anyone caught using Iran's currency, the rial, for 'significant transactions'.
According to the statistics, about 69 automobile manufacturer units have been closed and 115,000 people lost their jobs in the automobile sector of Iran during the past two years.