Iran's auto manufacturing giant, Iran Khodro Company (IKCO), plans to increase its production capacity to 600,000 cars in the current Iranian year beginning on March 20.
Addressing a group of managers and employees of the company, the IKCO managing director observed that some 520,000 cars will be manufactured in Tehran site, 100,000 in Khorasan, 30,000 in Tabriz and over 20,000 cars will be produced in IKCO sites located abroad.
Manouchehr Manteqi put the number of commercial cars over 30,000 units and announced the export of diesel engine Samand as the other objectives of IKCO, the largest automobile producer in the Middle East, in the new Iranian year.
Manteqi also noted that the first hybrid bus will be delivered on October 2008.
He cited the completion of the second phase of Khorasan plant with the capacity of 150,000 cars, completion of second phase of Syria plant with the capacity of 30,000 cars, increasing the capacity of Belarus site, establishing the second production line of low-fuel consumption vehicles, establishing the second phase of Iran Khodro plant in Tabriz and establishing subway equipment production line in Abhar as the most important schemes of the IKCO for the current year.
Referring to the performance of IKCO during the previous year, Manteqi put the value of IKCO exports at dlrs 575 million, showing a 83 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
"After three-years of non-stop efforts, IKCO managed to export Samand to Turkey last year, which indicated that Iran has met the European standards," he said.
Given the delivery of 13,000 Tondar 90 cars to the domestic market last year, Manteqi said that some 269,000 dual-fuel cars were also produced last year.
© IRNA 2008
