Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 4
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend:
Iran produced 425,253 cars in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year which started March 21, the Tasnim News Agency reported on December 4.
Some 361,097 sedan cars, 59,211 pickup trucks, 4,672 trucks, 219 buses and 54 minibuses were produced in the country in the same period.
The country imported 36,212 cars in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year which started March 21.
The figure shows a 32 per cent increase compared to the same period of time in the previous year, Fars News Agency reported on December 1.
The value of the imported cars was around 18.4 trillion rials, $613.3 million based on the price of USD on the free market.
Only in the eighth calendar month were 5672 cars worth $127.542 million exported.
The amounts show a 36 and 25.93 per cent increase in terms of number and value compared to the same month of the previous year.
Iran produced 989,110 cars in 2012, which made the country Asia's eighth largest car manufacturer. It also stood at 18th place in the world.
China, Japan, South Korea, India, Thailand, Turkey and Indonesia were Asia's seven largest car manufacturers.
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 the car manufacturers are faced 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.