UAZ is all smiles at pact with Iranian supplier

Parts of the interiors of UAZ's off-road vehicles will now come from an Iranian supplier. Aleksandr Morozov, director of purchasing for Ulyanovsk Auto, said at a Monday press conference that the firm had signed a five-year, Euro 20 million contract with AIDKO (Iran) for deliveries of dashboard panels and interior elements.

'This is a very interesting contract,' he said. 'We get to use technology developed for themselves by Peugot and Citroen.' He further stressed that the contract fixes the prices of the purchased materials for the life of the contract 'except for cases of force majeure.' He said the contract had the backing of leading banks, including Dresdner-Bank.

UAZ makes 14 models of off-road cars and all-wheel microbuses. The firm is part of Severstal-Avto (part of the Severstal-Group holding). UAZ output in 2002 was down 2.1% (to 69,599 vehicles) as compared with 2001. The plant last year produced 33,648 off-road automobiles, 6,186 commercial automobiles, 18,898 buses and 10,748 special cars. Automobile exports were up 48.3% (to 8,900 vehicles exported) in 2002, as compared with 2001. The firm expects its export total for 2003 to come to 14,500 vehicles.

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