100 Million Dollars’ Worth of Imported Vehicles to Iran, Done by Domestic Car Makers

Khodrocar – the vehicle import website of Iran is now closed for almost 4 month while the great increase in vehicle import volume was announced as a major reason to shut it down. Now the precise statistics of vehicles and parts imports of the first half of the year shows that a great part of the import volume belong to domestic automakers and importers linked with the government.

"In the first half of last year almost 32.6 thousand vehicles with the worth of 885 million dollars and in the first half of the current year nearly 44.6 cars with worth of 1.2 billion dollars were imported to the country which shows a 36 percent raise in comparison to the same period of the last year. Out of the import volume of the current year, 5.1 thousands cars with the worth 100 million dollars belong to domestic car makers and governmental especial licenses.” Said Farhad Ehteshamzad, Automobile Importers Association manager to Khodrocar journalist.

"Excluding the domestic car makers and governmental imports, the real volume of the vehicle import in the past six month was 39.6 thousands of vehicles with worth of 93 million dollars. Considering the first half of the year’s production, import to domestic production ratio was 8.5 percent while in numerical point of view 21 percent and dollar point of view 28 percent raise is shown.” He added.

Ehteshamzad mentioned other parties and went on: "the import shares was 70 percent from UAE, 6 percent France and China, Korea and Germany each 4 percent, 3 percent Turkey and 2 percent Kuwait. 42 percent of the imports was through Bahonar harbor, 14 percent Bushehr harbor and 12 percent from Lenge harbor.”

"Renault had a 30 percent share from the total import volume and is the top brand so far. Hyundai stands after Renault with 18 percent of import share and Toyota got third with only 14 percent share. Nissan and KIA are at fourth and fifth.” Added Ehteshamzad.

"1.4 billion dollars’ worth of parts were importer to the country during this time that considering the 50 percent share of the smuggled parts the number must stand around 2 billion.” Said Ehteshamzad referring to part import volume.

He went on: "47 percent of the parts were imported from China, 20 percent from France, 16 percent from Korea, 5 percent from Japan, 4 percent from Romania and another 4 percent from Turkey. 39 percent of the parts are imported through Rajaei customs, 15 percent from Arge Jadid Special Economic Zone and 10 percent from Iran’s Western customs.”

"The total import volume had a 36 percent raise out of which 15 percent was for the domestic producers and especial governmental licenses. Regarding Renault’s import share, 3 percent of it belongs to IKCO and 27 percent belongs to Negin Khodro.” Said Ehteshamzad.

The vehicle and part import done by domestic car makers show a very disturbing image, going a wrong way, against the domestic production. Maybe it is better if the government would adjust its politics against the domestic producers and force them to really produce domestically instead of closing the doors shut to the customers.

Khodrocar Journalist: Asal Dadashloo

Khodrocar Translator: Mostafa Anisi