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Iran Opens Largest Car Plant in the Mideast
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May 10, 2010 10:04 a.m. EST
Topics: government, automotive equipment, politics, manufacturing and engineering, heads of state, economy, business and finance, United States
The Media Line Staff
United States (TML) - Iran has inaugurated the largest car plant in the Middle East, in a bid to boost the national economy and give Iranian consumers a local choice.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official Iranian news agency Press TV as saying “if an Iranian wants to buy a vehicle, he must prefer homemade ones.” Ahmadinejad toured the floor of the new factory in Kashan, which produces 150,000 cars per year.
The plant, which is operated by the Saipa group, Iran’s largest car manufacturer after Iran Khodro, will employ an estimated 4,000 workers and cost $350 million to build, according to Press TV.
The Iranian government owns 48 percent of Saipa. In 2009, Saipa was the leading car producer in Iran, manufacturing 54 percent of the total vehicles produced, with Iran Khodro producing the rest.
The cars produced will be a mix of foreign models from companies such as French Citroen and South Korean Kia, as well as Tina labels – the first cars to be made entirely in Iran.
Iran is the only country in the Middle East that has domestic car manufacturers.
While Iran may be facing tougher sanctions, as it is in entangled in a dispute with the United States over the nature of Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran claims is peaceful power production but Washington alleges is for the production of nuclear weapons.
Professor Anoush Ehteshami, an expert on Iran at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom warns against seeing every economic development in Iran as a sign that the country is preparing for sanctions.
“Sanctions feature very much from the outside perspective, but probably less directly so from the Iranian planning cycle,” Ehteshami told The Media Line. “They are getting on with what they have to do.”
While Iran’s trade tariffs on importing foreign cars have helped both Saipa and Iran Khodro to dominate the domestic market, reports of inefficiency, a $9 billion debt and risks of bankruptcy abound in Iranian media.
President Ahmadinejad has stopped the August 2009 $1 billion government-backed bailout of Khodro, set to be financed by selling off the central bank’s stock.
“They have some factories outside Iran, in Syria, former Soviet states, etc,” Emad Honarparvar, CEO of Iran’s Import-Export Business Directory, told The Media Line. “After the worldwide recession, they had to compete with giants like Toyota in these markets, which had less interest in them by big car makers before the crisis… and they definitely can’t make it.”
Since the Iranian government subsidizes the price of gas, driving was a national pleasure and in 2007 the government attempted to impose limits on fuel consumption. Drivers were allowed to buy a maximum of 26 gallons per month, but following complaints from drivers the amount was increased to 31 gallons. Buying fuel above this limit means paying four times more.
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