The head of partly state-owned automaker and Renault JV partner Iran Khodro has been replaced.

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Reports in several newspapers cited by the Reuters news agency did not say why Javad Najmuddin, who previously headed a subsidiary of rival state car firm Saipa, replaced Iran Khodro managing director Manouchehr Manteghi.


Sarmayeh business daily editor Saeed Laylaz said Iran Khodro had lost market share and its drive to establish branches in countries such as Syria and Sudan had not been profitable.


“A big chunk of the car market was lost to the competition,” Laylaz reportedly wrote in a commentary in another Iranian daily, Etemad-e Melli.


Iran Khodro did not comment immediately.

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The Sarmayeh newspaper said the industries development and renovation organisation, which is in charge of state firms in the automotive industry, made the change of managing director and quoted Manteghi as saying Iran Khodro’s sales were US$10bn in the 2008-09 Iranian year, during which it exported 42,000 cars.


Manteghi was appointed senior adviser to industries and mines minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian, according to Reuters.


Iran Khodro is famous for building and selling the Hillman Hunter-based Peykan for decades and nowadays has partnerships to make Renault’s low-cost Logan, called the Tondar-90 in Iran, and Peugeot’s 206 and 405 models.


Reuters noted that Manteghi, who headed Iran Khodro for six years, said in January the company aimed to boost output and exports in coming years despite a global downturn for the sector and western sanctions on the country which have pushed up costs.


He also told reporters Iran Khodro was profitable but did not give figures and played down the impact of sanctions imposed over Iran’s disputed nuclear programme.


[Updated 14.04.09 to correct spelling of former Iran Khodro managing director Manouchehr Manteghi’s name – ed]


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