TEHRAN- Boosting production is seriously planned and pursued in all industrial sectors of Iran in the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 20), which is named the year of surge in production.

Carmaking, as one of the major industries of the country, has already achieved the mentioned goal, as based on the data released by the Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry, 468,699 vehicles have been manufactured in Iran during the first half of the current year (March 20-September 21), which has been 23.4 percent higher than the figure of the same period of time in the past year.

During this period, 425,925 passenger cars were manufactured in the country, registering a growth of 21.9 percent compared to the first six months of the previous year.

The production of trucks reached 39,519 units in the said time span, which has increased by 40.4 percent compared to the last year’s same period.

While the growth in output has been realized in the first half, car manufacturing is also planned to be risen in the second half.

On Sunday, Mohsen Salehinia, the new head of Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO), mentioned planning for increasing car manufacturing in the second half, and said, “We are investigating and finalizing the issues in this due”.

Earlier this year, Deputy Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Saeed Zarandi had said that 1.2 million vehicles were planned to be manufactured in the present year, which seems a realistic figure given the surge in production policies of this year.

Car manufacturing had also increased in the past Iranian calendar year.

Iranian carmakers manufactured 927,197 vehicles during the past year.

Of the total output, 863,263 cars were manufactured by three major carmakers, namely Iran Khodro Company (IKCO), SAIPA Group, and Pars Khodro.

Iran has been also following a program for supporting domestic manufacturing of auto parts since due to the U.S. sanctions the country’s automakers have been facing some problems in supplying their needed parts and equipment.

In late January, Iranian Auto Parts Makers Association Maziar Beyglou announced that the country has achieved 80 percent self-sufficiency in the manufacturing of the auto parts.

The official expressed hope that self-reliance in this sector reaches 90 percent through domestic production of required raw materials.

Considering the released data and also the Industry Ministry’s serious programs for the realization of this year’s motto of surge in production, car manufacturing growth can be expected for the second half of the year as well.