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9.1.2 ​Automotive sector news
Iranian auto component makers claim to have reached 80% self-sufficiency in providing supplies required by Iran’s automakers, according to Mehr News Agency.
Iran’s automotive industry has struggled in the past year to import parts including catalytic converters due to US sanctions, targeted explicitly at the sector since August 2018.
Secretary of the Iranian Auto Parts Makers Association Maziar Beyglou was quoted as saying that the country would soon reach 90% localisation in producing automotive parts, as producers were continuing to take up the slack from European companies who pulled out under threat of secondary sanctions from the US targeted at commercial parties still involved in trade or investment relationships with Iran.
Several foreign car models, including the Kia Pride, Peugeot 206 and 405 and the Pars GLX (a variant of the 1980s Peugeot 405 model) have mostly been produced with Iranian-made components for several years.
Other assembled models including the Peugeot 207i/+ have suffered from a lack of parts, with manufacturers like largest Iranian auto producer Iran Khodro (IKCO) urging buyers to purchase alternative vehicles.
Iranian car manufacturers have previously much relied on Chinese parts makers filling in local production gaps. However, some Chinese have also felt the pressure of the US sanctions threat. Some have pulled out of Iran, others have gone under the radar.
In October 2019, two​ ​Iranian technology and science startups​ signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to start production of reverse-engineered airbags initially worth IRR490bn ($4.3mn at the official exchange rate, $11.6mn at the free market rate during October.)
Groupe PSA units Peugeot, Citroen and DS Automobiles​, ​along with fellow French car producer Renault​, ​all invested in the Iranian market following the removal of international sanctions against Tehran under the 2015 nuclear deal—but after the US under Donald Trump returned to a sanctions policy against Iran in May 2018 they all withdrew from the country.
9.1.3 ​Aviation sector news
Travel ban to and fro Iran
Iran’s worst air disaster in the country’s recent history
The Tajik government has greatly scaled down a measure set up against the spread of the coronavirus. It has reduced the size of a 35-country travel ban to just five countries.
The list now only covers China, Iran, South Korea, Afghanistan and Italy, instead of the far bigger list that included nations such as the UK, Japan, the US and Canada.
Tajikistan’s Civil Aviation Agency warned that passengers from the listed countries would be turned away at the border.
Tajikistan suspended all flights to Iran last week and barred travel across the Iranian border.
The bans will affect flights by domestic airlines Tajik Air and Somoni Air.
A Caspian Airlines plane with 135 passengers on board slid off a runway on to a city highway after landing at an airport in southwestern Iran on January 27. ​However, nobody was hurt in the incident, Iranian state media reported.
It was Iran’s third incident involving aircraft difficulties in as many days and served as another reminder that the country is struggling to keep its ageing
41​ IRAN Country Report​ March 2020 www.intellinews.com