Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) — Iran Khodro, the country’s largest automaker, plans to open a second assembly facility in Senegal in November, part of a broader push into other emerging markets including Venezuela and Turkey.
Iran Khodro wants to use the West African nation as a base from which to export vehicles for sale elsewhere in the continent. The company’s Africa strategy fits with its ambitions in South America, where it is in talks to quadruple the number of cars it assembles each year at a plant in Venezuela. Iran Khodro also wants to form a joint venture in Turkey to build a car to be marketed in Islamic countries.
The new operation in Senegal will be “complete and comprehensive,” said Mir Javad Soleimani, Iran Khodro’s deputy chief executive officer for quality and product development. “We will be able to produce all the vehicles that can be supplied to central African states,” he said in an interview yesterday at the company’s headquarters outside Tehran.
