Iran Khodro drafts plan on investing in Azerbaijan
By Rashid Shirinov
Iran Khodro (IKCO), the Islamic Republic’s giant carmaker, will launch a joint venture in Azerbaijan.
Director of America, Asia, Europe and CIS Department at IKCO, Sabina Nobari announced about this while talking to Trend.
Nobari mentioned that Iran Khodro has prepared a plan to invest in Azerbaijan by launching a JV as the Iranian manufacturer has already carried out an in-depth study on Azerbaijan’s car market.
The car factory jointly founded by the two countries in
Azerbaijan’s Neftchala industrial park is expected to produce its
first cars as of late-May 2017.
The JV will produce 1,000 cars including Iran Khodro brands of
Samand, Soren, Runna and Dena in its first year of activity and the
factory is projected to increase its annual output to 10,000 cars
within three years, she added.
Moreover, the talks are underway to export the joint venture’s
products to regional countries such as Georgia and Ukraine.
Nobari further added that IKCO exported 26,500 cars to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) over the past decade.
Some 5,000 of them were sold to Azerbaijan, Nobari said, adding that these cars, including Samand, Soren and Runna brands, went to Azerbaijan through a local distributor company.
However, Azerbaijan's purchase of Iran Khodro cars dropped significantly following the national currency devaluation in Azerbaijan in 2015 due to the sharp drop in the world oil prices, she added.
IKCO is Iran's major car manufacturer, producing about 600,000 cars a year. In 2008, the company was elected as the Top Exporter of Iran and received Export National Award.
The manufacturer's production record was registered in 2010, when it produced over 750,000 cars.
Noteworthy, Azerbaijan has a number of car manufacturing plants spread over several regions.
The Ganja Automobile Plant specializes on assembling of Russian “Oka” and “UAZ” cars, Belarusian “MAZ” trucks and “Belarus” tractors, and Chinese “Changan” vans & trucks. The plant is capable of assembling up to 1,000 trucks and 2,000 tractors each year. The Ganja plant cooperates with a number of international partners, including German.
Another big and the most modern plant of Azerbaijan is Nakhchivan Automobile Plant, founded in 2006 and put into operation in 2010. The plant possessing a wide area of 2.6 ha produces 5,000 “Lifan” cars a year.
AzSamand, a factory founded in 2005 in Shamakhi, has already had experience of cooperation with Iran Khodro company. The plant assembles “Samand” and “Runna” cars.
Agricultural machinery is manufactured in Mingechevir and Zeyem.
Hence, car manufacturing is gaining momentum in Azerbaijan and more cars are expected to be produced in the country soon, both for domestic use and export.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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