One of the ever-lasting topics in the Iranian automotive industry, is the huge debts of automakers towards auto-part manufacturers.
Since these debts have been accumulated for a long time, auto-part makers claim an interest on top of the original amount. Auto-makers on the other hand do not show any interest to come at the table to clarify the total amount and therefore, basically no-one knows how much they owe the auto-part manufacturers.
Some estimations indicate that this debt is around 200 thousand billion rials (1.6 billion USD at market exchange rate).
Donyay-e Eghteasd quotes Farhad Behnia, Member of Auto-part Manufacturer Association, saying: “We cannot say how much auto-makers owe us precisely. According to a survey from our members the original debt amount was around 120 to 150 thousand billion rials. But if we consider the rising prices and interest rate, then this amount reaches 200 thousand billion rials.”
However, Mr Behnia adds that none of these numbers are updated and that auto manufacturers do not participate in clarifying the situation.
But auto-makers do not threat all part manufacturers equally, the report says. Indeed, the part-makers who manufacture some parts exclusively are very advantageous and not only are able to clear their claim, sometimes they are in debt toward auto-makers.
However, the small and medium-sized part-makers which produce non-exclusive parts, are suffering most and the majority of debt is toward them.
Auto-makers say that if the government stop putting a price-cap for their products, they will be able to increase prices to cover their costs and resolve this issue. So far, this seems to be the only point on which both auto and part manufacturers agree on.
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