At the same time as the 18th Tehran International Automobile Parts, Accessories and Collections Exhibition was held last week, the manufacturers of parts manufacturing also unveiled their latest products in this exhibition. One of the successful companies in the field of component manufacturing in the country is Ettehad Motor Industrial Group, which has been among the main suppliers of Iran Khodro and Saipa for many years. Mohammad Shahpari, the chairman of the board of directors of this group, explained the activities of this company in an interview with "Duniya Khodro" newspaper.
What is your assessment of the 18th auto parts and collections exhibition and how effective can this exhibition be in the development of the parts industry and coordination with car manufacturers and other stakeholders in this field?
Under the current sanctions, there are component manufacturers who can play a big role in the auto industry. In the meantime, the parts exhibition plays a big role in facing the automobile industry with special conditions. This year, fortunately, the parts makers had a very enthusiastic presence in the exhibition.
What is the role and position of Ettehad Motor Industrial Group in this situation?
I have been working in the parts industry for about 42 years, and currently, Ettehad Motor produces between 30,000 and 40,000 DC motors. On the other hand, this industrial group has the license production line of three major foreign companies, and our products include the snow removal system under the license of the French company Valeo, the radiator cooling motor under the license of the French company Faurecia, and the lifting glass under the license of Kwangjin of South Korea.
Currently, to what extent can car manufacturers and other institutions use the advanced laboratory that you have?
We are almost the reference laboratory of the standard institute and we made a very heavy investment in our laboratories, and since we are the designers of DC motors, we urgently needed such a laboratory.
Given that public and private car manufacturers have unveiled many products during this period, which models have you participated in?
We have participated in almost all the new models of car manufacturers and our R&D department has participated in the design of parts for new products such as Tara, Shaheen, Saina S, Quick GX, etc.
In terms of overall presence in the supply chain of car manufacturers, how is the status of Ettehad Motor?
Today, we have about 16 factories, where 4 thousand people are directly employed in these factories and work in these complexes and 600 industrial units supplying parts for Ettehad Motor, and indirectly about 25 thousand people eat bread on this table. Therefore, according to such coordinates, we are considered one of the largest parts manufacturers and suppliers of the two largest car manufacturers in the country.
Do you have any new statistics on the production status of Ettehad Motor and its subsidiaries?
We work in four areas. One is about OE, or the supply of main parts for car manufacturers' production lines, and the other is about OES, or the supply of parts for the spare parts market, and the aftermarket, or parts that are not made by OE manufacturers. On the other hand, we also have export plans and approaches that we follow seriously and we hope to succeed in this field as well.
To fulfill this purpose, all our factories are producing 24 hours a day. In addition, in addition to the 30,000 to 40,000 DC motors that are produced daily in the Ettehadmotor complex, 600,000 snow blower blades are being produced monthly.
Also, about 40,000 starters are produced monthly, and we also produce more than 3,000,000 hand pads, and more than 500,000 upper steering columns and 500,000 lower steering columns are being produced in this collection. In general, the variety of products in the company is very large.
What measures have you taken to maintain and improve the quality of the products according to the strictures in this field in the automobile industry?
The priority of our work is quality. As is evident in our OES and aftermarket, quality comes first in our work. In relation to maintaining quality, there are two issues; One is investment and innovation. In the current situation, all our lines are designed based on automatic systems, and the second issue is training. In this regard, we do not deviate from quality in any way and because of this, we are almost the top brand in the country in terms of quality.
One of the problems faced by car manufacturers is the supply of electronic parts. What steps have you taken to produce these parts?
Currently, electronic components have their own conditions; Right now, the world is facing a big problem, which is the issue of chips. On the other hand, our country has performed very poorly in the field of electronic components and the production infrastructure of these components is not ready in our country. Of course, the US and China are also facing many problems in this regard.
Companies like Mapna have produced examples of electric cars in cooperation with Iran Khodro, Saipa and Kerman Motor. What actions have you taken in Ettehad Motor Group to produce electrical parts?
The parts that we produce in relation to electric cars are carry over, that is, the same parts that are used in gasoline cars can also be used in electric cars. In fact, if an electric car is produced in the country, all our parts can be used on electric cars.
What are the biggest and most important challenges and problems that you are currently dealing with?
The biggest challenge that car manufacturers and parts manufacturers are currently facing is the issue of car pricing. As long as this rule prevails, unfortunately, our car manufacturers will make losses and as the statistics show, these two car manufacturers currently have accumulated losses of 130 thousand billion tomans, and unfortunately, this gap between the car price in the factory and the open market, The pockets of a series of brokers go.
The second challenge is the issue of currency supply, which is claimed to have allocated one billion and 400 million dollars to the automobile and parts industries for this purpose.
I firmly say here that the majority of this amount has gone to private car manufacturers who import their parts as SKD or CKD for assembly in the country with minimal internalization, and a very small amount of this currency has also been allocated to Iran Khodro, Saipa and parts manufacturers.
The third challenge that automakers and parts manufacturers are dealing with now is the issue of liquidity. Unfortunately, due to the existing order prices, the car manufacturer is suffering losses and cannot fulfill its 120-day settlement commitment according to the contract signed with the parts manufacturer. That is why the demands of parts manufacturers from car manufacturers are increasing day by day.
You mentioned the pricing problem. Car supply in the stock market has also become very controversial and now the Competition Council and some officials are against this issue. What is your position as an auto parts maker in this regard?
In my opinion, if the car is offered in the stock market and based on the supply and demand mechanism, the car manufacturer is told to supply the product according to the demand, you know for sure that the actual price of the car will decrease drastically.
One of the component manufacturers released some of its products in the commodity exchange in the past few months. Can car parts be sold on the stock market?
In my opinion, no. The stock market is not something that I think can succeed in the stock market.