Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.21/ Trend F.Karimov/
Iranian carmakers may not produce certain types of cars anymore because the national standards organisation has forced them to install two air bags in the cars, ISNA quoted secretary of the carmakers union Ahmad Nematbakhsh as saying.
However, the carmakers have announced they are not able to meet this obligation due to the fact that international sanctions have made it difficult to import sufficient numbers of air bags.
Iranian industry minister Mohammadreza Nematzadeh has announced the country will produce 900,000 cars in the current Iranian calendar year which began March 21, ISNA reported.
Meanwhile, some experts believe that attaining the goal will be impossible and others say it is dependent on certain conditions.
Iran manufactured 292,000 cars in the first half of the current year. A car industry expert has said the six-month car output reached 800,000 in the year which ended March 2012, whilst there were no internal and external problems.
In the most optimistic case, if all the internal problems including liquidity shortage are resolved, it is hoped that the goal of 900,000 cars per year materialises, the expert said.
Iran exported 5208 sedans during the first six months of the current solar year which indicates a fall of 82.21 per cent compared to the same period of the last solar year, the website of the Islamic Republic of Iran customs administration (IRICA) reported.
The value of the exported cars was around $16 million which is 91.80 per cent less than the same period last year. The average price per car was $3087 which indicates a 45.58 per cent decrease this year.
Iran has exported 2991, 1313 and 301 sedan cars to Germany, Iraq and Azerbaijan respectively during the period.
Iran has imported 22,222 sedan cars worth $464 million during the six month period which indicates an increase of 15.40 and 8.87 per cent respectively in terms of volume and value compared to the first six months of the last solar year. The average price of the imported cars was $20,879 which indicates a 5.66 per cent decrease in price compared to the previous year.
Iran has imported 16,666, 3202 and 924 cars from the UAE, China and South Korea respectively during the period. It produced 989,110 cars in 2012 which made the country Asia's eighth largest car manufacturer.
Iran's automobile output faced a 40 per cent decrease in 2012. The country was Asia's fifth 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 car manufacturers are facing in Iran.