Siamco
Siamco ( Arabic سيامكو) was an automobile manufacturer based in the Syrian industrial city of Adra. The company was founded in late 2004 as a joint venture between Iran Khodro (40%), the Syrian Ministry of Industry (35%) and the Sultan Trading Company (25%). The company name chosen is the short form of Syrian-Iranian AutoMobile Company or, more rarely, Syria Samand Company . Siamco employed approximately 350 people. Around 60 million US dollars were invested in the construction of the Syrian plant.
The plant was built during the Syrian auto boom, after the Syrian government had legalized the purchase of middle class automobiles for all citizens three years earlier. Syria was seen as an important sales market with growth potential. The only licensed dealers were in Harasta and Duma.
In March 2007, the company started production of its first model with the Siamco Sham, a licensed edition of the IKCO Samand . The chosen model name Sham stands for "Made in Syria". In addition to the standard model, the Ex and Lx equipment lines were also available . 350 vehicles of the model were assembled per month. In June 2012, a plant expansion began, through which the maximum capacity should be increased to 30,000 units per year. Until then, this had been 240 vehicles per week.
Production ended in 2012.
Web links
- Siamco website ( Memento from June 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- d'Auto (Dutch, accessed May 7, 2016)