Why are automakers opposed to importing second-hand cars? An excuse to maintain a monopoly?

According to Tejarat News, while the import of passenger cars is still in a state of ambiguity, the publication of a protest letter from the Automobile Manufacturers Association regarding the possibility of importing used buses has become news in recent days. Of course, the principle of this debate is not new and it has pros and cons. Is Import of second-hand cars it’s reasonable?

The essence of the recent story, of course, goes back to the last days of last year. At the time, the mayor of Tehran, Alireza Zakani, had written to the president asking him to issue a special permit to import 1,000 second-hand buses from a neighboring country.

The mayor’s letter did not mention the country’s name or the average life of the buses. But mediaThe first case was announced by Turkey and the current average life of buses is 13 years.

“These intercity buses are made in Europe and will be rebuilt to the Euro 2 standard,” Zakani wrote in his letter. They are also scheduled to be provided to Tehran Municipality for another month at a price of about 20% of the daily price.

In this letter, he pointed out that 90% of the fleet of Tehran bus system is worn out and the high cost of providing each bus from domestic companies. Zakani called on the government to help import these products by “zeroing commercial profits and calculating the base rate of import duties and customs duties.”

Opposition to the import of second-hand cars

The issue of importing second-class buses is not new. Tehran Municipality has been trying to import such products since the mid-1990s. So far, it has faced opposition from the parliament and the capital city council.

Now Ahmad Nematbakhsh, the secretary of the Automobile Manufacturers Association, is sending Letter Openly addressed to the President, he has opposed this issue.

In his letter, he called the import of second-hand buses a “betrayal of the country.” Nematbakhsh explained that the biggest problem of the country’s economy is “employment” and the most employment-generating product of the automotive industry is the production of buses and minibuses.

According to him, the government and the municipality should support the increase of domestic companies’ production instead of imports.

Does it make sense to import second-class buses?

Morteza Mostafavi, industry expert car Regarding the opposition to “imports”, he told Trade News: “A group of policymakers and activists in the automotive industry are interested in continuing the monopoly in this area.” They want to ban imports even without trying to increase productivity.

“The same is true for passenger cars,” he said. Due to their monopoly and lack of competition in this field, automakers have no incentive to increase the quality of their products.

Conditions for importing a second-class car

Mostafavi believes that if Iranian carmakers are to assemble in the field of commercial vehicles and heavy vehicles, it is better for decision makers to allocate the dollars spent in this field to importing quality vehicles.

This expert also emphasizes: Import of second-hand cars It should be done with the necessary environmental studies and after obtaining pollution and safety approvals. Experts should also make comparisons as to whether these cars are of higher quality and lower emissions than domestic cars. If the answer is yes, their import is reasonable.

Maintaining a monopoly under the pretext of “employment”!

Automakers They often repeat a keyword in the face of criticism of the quality and price of their products; “Employment”. Some activists see imports as a factor in jeopardizing the job security of their workers.

But Mostafavi believes in this: issues such as employment and national production in political literature The automotive industry It has become a weapon and an excuse to maintain monopoly. Whenever there is a discussion about the need to create competition and increase quality, some warn that employment is in jeopardy.

He adds: “Now the Iranian car industry is facing the problem of surplus labor and people with noble rents earn money from this industry.” Such people are sometimes placed in specialized positions, but due to inefficiency, they cause financial losses to companies and waste resources.

“The employment of such people may be jeopardized, but the manufacturer is unlikely to be willing to eliminate its real worker who works on the production line,” said the car industry expert.

According to Tejarat News, traffic police officials recently announced that about 32% of light and heavy vehicles and 80% of the country’s public transport fleet are worn out.

At that time, Babak Sadraei, an expert in the automotive industry about Import of second-hand cars He told Trade News: “In the past years, tractors were imported from China whose brakes had technical defects, and as a result of these products, several road accidents occurred.” It is better to buy second-hand European public and freight cars; Of course, as long as they are safe and technically sound.

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