Opel Helps France's PSA Buck China, Iran Auto Downturn

French auto giant Groupe PSA, which makes the Citroen and Peugeot brands, reported record vehicle sales Tuesday as the acquisition of General Motors' Opel unit helped offset a sharp downturn in key markets China and Iran.

PSA sold 3.88 million vehicles, up 6.8 percent from 2017 when it acquired the Opel business which includes British-based Vauxhall.

PSA said that without the Opel contribution, 2018 sales would have been down 12 percent despite a strong showing in Europe.

Ranked second in Europe after Germany's Volkswagen, PSA said it did well last year to increase overall sales "for a fifth consecutive year... against a background of adverse economic and geopolitical winds."

The company failed, however, to hit the overall target of four million vehicles it had set, largely due to the impact of fresh sanctions imposed on Iran by US President Donald Trump and a slump in China.

PSA announced in June that it was suspending operations in Iran, where it would have expected sales of 300,000 vehicles.

In China, PSA said sales plunged more than 34 percent in an overall market down nearly six percent.

Total sales in China and Southeast Asia fell for a fourth consecutive year to 262,600.

PSA and its Chinese partner and major shareholder Dongfeng, sold 740,000 vehicles in China in 2014 and had targeted one million for last year.

The company said early last year that it hoped that new SUV models and upgrading its distribution network would boost sales in China.

In Europe, PSA said sales jumped 30.6 percent to 3.1 million vehicles, accounting for 80 percent of the total compared with 65 percent in 2017.

The Opel and Vauxhall brands chalked up sales of around one million vehicles.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran Students in Rare Protest Over Deadly Campus Bus Crash

Hundreds of Iranian students held protests for a second day on Sunday, calling for university officials to resign over a bus crash that killed 10, state news agency IRNA said.

The demonstrating students reportedly carried photos of victims of Tuesday's crash at a square leading to the university, in a rare display of dissent at Tehran's Islamic Azad University.

They demanded the university's chairman of the board of trustees Ali-Akbar Velayati resign, the sports and youth ministry's news agency Borna reported.

The bus was carrying 30 students along a mountainous road within the university's science and research campus in northwestern Tehran when it veered off the road and hit a concrete column. 

Seven were killed instantly, state TV said, while an updated death toll of 10 was reported by the conservative Tasnim news agency the day after the crash.

The university initially blamed Tuesday's crash on the driver having a stroke, which was later denied by the coroner's office. 

On social media, the public and students have pointed to the university's ageing bus fleet and poor maintenance.

Several mid-tier managers were fired in the wake of the accident and some arrested, the university told semi-official news agency ISNA on Wednesday.

Students have called for the university's bus fleet to be replaced. 

They want an emergency centre to be set up on-campus and for guard rails to be erected along the entire mountainous road where the accident happened.

Iran's prosecutor general Mohammad-Jafar Montazeri visited the protesting students and called for calm.

He promised them he would follow up on the case personally and punish wrongdoers "if they were found guilty."

Iran is the world's seventh deadliest country per capita for road accidents, according to 2013 data—the latest available—published by the World Health Organization.

Efforts to modernize Iran's ageing and highly polluting vehicle fleet have been hampered by a lack of investment.

Foreign companies Peugeot and Renault were forced to withdraw this year due to the return of US sanctions.

Photo Credit: ISNA

Volkswagen Won't Confirm Claim it Will Quit Iran

Story re-filed by AFP with new headline, text.

Car giant Volkswagen declined Thursday to confirm a claim by American ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell that it would stop doing business in Iran.

Grenell—known for stirring up controversy in his host country with public sallies on business and politics—told Bloomberg News VW would wind up most business with Iran after weeks of talks with President Donald Trump's administration.

The German behemoth had announced in July 2017 that it would begin selling its own-brand cars in Iran for the first time in 17 years.

A spokesman for the Wolfsburg-based carmaker told AFP it was sticking to its long-standing position that it "obeys all national and international laws as well as export regulations".

"We are also taking into account possible effects related to the reintroduction of US sanctions," he added.

A source familiar with the talks told AFP that VW and the US government had not yet reached a final accord.

Even if it fully complies with US sanctions, VW will still be able to do some business in Iran under a "humanitarian exception", Bloomberg reported.

In May, Trump pulled the US out of the deal it reached with Iran and five other countries in 2015. That accord lifted sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.

Now, the US is reimposing those sanctions, and Grenell has this month tweeted to celebrate chemicals heavyweight BASF and reinsurance giant Munich Re saying they would comply with the trade squeeze.

A spokesman for BASF told AFP Thursday that it "will continue to do business in Iran and obey all legal rules and regulations."

He added that "around half" the 80 million euros ($93.5 million) in revenue BASF earned in Iran last year came from sectors—energy, automobiles and petrochemicals—affected by American sanctions.

The Ludwigshafen-based group's business with the country represents a tiny fraction of its 64.5 billion euros in annual turnover.

Meanwhile Munich Re has said it would withdraw from Iran in case of sanctions so as not to risk its much larger US activities.

European governments are battling to find ways for their firms to continue trading with Iran, hoping to keep Tehran from renewing its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Last week, the German government confirmed to AFP that Berlin, Paris and London were considering a scheme that would allow Iran to ship goods to European Union countries and receive others in return—without transferring money through international financial channels vulnerable to US sanctions.

Unusually outspoken for a diplomat, Ambassador Grenell irked his German hosts immediately following his arrival in Berlin earlier this year.

In one of his first interviews after taking office, he pressured German firms to withdraw from business with Iran and said he aimed to "empower" anti-establishment conservatives around Europe—drawing accusations of meddling in his host country's politics.

Photo Credit: VAG

Daimler Says Halting Iran Activities Over US Sanctions

German automaker Daimler on Tuesday said it was halting its business activities in Iran after the United States re-imposed sanctions on Tehran.

"We have suspended our already limited activities in Iran in accordance with the applicable sanctions," a spokeswoman said in a statement sent to AFP, adding that Daimler was closely monitoring political developments.

The move brings a sudden end to Daimler's expansion plans in Iran, where it was teaming up with two local firms to assemble Mercedes-Benz trucks.

It comes as a first round of renewed US sanctions on Iran came into effect after President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal.

The first sanctions targets access to US banknotes and key industries such as cars and carpets.

A second tranche coming into effect on November 5 is expected to be even more damaging, covering Iran's vital oil sector.

The European Union, which still adheres to the landmark 2015 nuclear pact, has promised to take steps to protect EU firms' dealings with Iran, but the uncertainty has already prompted many businesses to pull out of the country.

French carmaker Renault, which does not sell cars in the US, has said it will remain in Iran despite the sanctions.

But French oil group Total and carmaker PSA have already indicated they are likely to withdraw from Iran.

Trump ramped up the pressure again Tuesday, hailing the "most biting sanctions ever imposed".

"Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less," he wrote.

Daimler had signed a letter of intent in 2016 to manufacture and sell Mercedes trucks in Iran in a joint venture with Iran Khodro Diesel (IKD) and the Mammut Group, in its first big step to return to the country after years of sanctions over its nuclear programme.

In its statement, Daimler stressed that it had not yet started making or selling any trucks in Iran, nor was it selling any passenger cars there.

"We continue to monitor closely the political developments, particularly with regard to the future of the nuclear agreement," Daimler added.

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Renault to Stay in Iran Despite US Sanctions: CEO

French carmaker Renault will maintain its presence in Iran while taking measures to avoid the risk of penalties for breaching renewed US sanctions, CEO Carlos Ghosn said Friday.

"We will not abandon it, even if we have to downsize very strongly," he said at the annual shareholders' meeting in Paris.

"When the market reopens, the fact of having stayed will certainly give us an advantage," he predicted.

US President Donald Trump announced in May that he was pulling out of the hard-fought 2015 deal in which world powers offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for restraints on its nuclear program.

The US exit means renewed sanctions on the Islamic Republic, while international companies doing business there will face penalties if they do not quit the country in between 90 and 180 days. 

Companies including aircraft maker Boeing, French energy giant Total and Danish shipping group Maersk have announced plans to pull out, while Nike has stopped supplying Iran's football team with boots.

Renault's rival PSA, which produces the Peugeot and Citroen brands, has also announced it will quit Iran to abide by the US sanctions.

But Ghosn signaled that Renault, which counted 160,000 cars sold in Iran last year out of its total 3.76 million, would try to stay in the country.

"We have a future in Iran," he insisted.  "However, we are not going to do so to the detriment of Renault's interests—we will be watching closely to make sure our presence in Iran does not provoke direct or indirect reprisal measures on the part of American authorities."

Ghosn said a Renault team working on the issue was "in direct contact with the American administration to work out what can be done and what cannot be done".

The company has not sold its cars in the United States since abandoning the market in the 1980s.

Photo Credit: IRNA

French Carmaker PSA Says to Exit Iran Over US Sanction Risk

French automaker PSA said Monday that it would pull out of two joint ventures to sell its cars in Iran to avoid the risk of US sanctions after Washington withdrew from a key nuclear deal with Tehran.

"The group has begun to suspend its joint venture activities, in order to comply with US law by August 6, 2018," the maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars said in a statement.

European officials have vowed to try to shield their companies working in Iran from the reach of punishing US sanctions that are set to come into effect by November.

But with US President Donald Trump showing little inclination to spare EU companies, they must decide whether to continue to work in Iran if doing so puts their US operations at risk of huge fines.

PSA, Europe's second-biggest carmaker, signed deals with two Iranian automakers, Iran Khodro and Saipa, in 2016 after sanctions were lifted following the landmark 2015 accord aimed at prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.

It was among several companies which rushed into Iran, hoping to meet pent-up demand in a country that had been squeezed by sanctions for years.

Last year PSA sold nearly 445,000 vehicles in Iran, making the country one of its biggest markets outside France.

Although it has been absent from the US market since 1991, the company said in January that it was hoping to launch a car-sharing service in one or two American cities.

But PSA, which also owns the Opel and Vauxhall brands, also noted that Iran sales still make up less than one percent of its total sales, and so exiting the country would not alter its financial guidance.

"With the support of the French government, Groupe PSA is engaging with the US authorities to consider a waiver," it said.

Yet the CEO of French oil giant Total, who was hoping to launch a major natural gas project in Iran, said last week that the chances of winning exemptions to the US sanctions were "very slim."

Photo Credit: IRNA