23 December 2002 06:29
RUSSIA EXPECTED TO PRODUCE 4% FEWER CARS IN 2002
Russia looks like producing 980,000-985,000 cars in 2002, down 4% from 1.022 million in 2001.
The market is over-saturated, and companies like Avtovaz will produce less, and the GAZ auto works intends to halt
production of Volga cars temporarily, Alexander Kovrigin, deputy general director of ASM- Holding, the umbrella company
for Russian and CIS auto makers, told Interfax.
The market is over-saturated because some 500,000 imported second- hand cars will be sold in Russia this year,
Kovrigin said.
The State Customs Committee has said 381,500 imported second-hand cars were brought into Russia in 2001.
More were brought into the country this year because rumors that import duties on these cars will be imposed had been
circulating all year. But only in October did the government finally impose duties on second-hand cars more than seven
years old, Kovrigin said.
Other theories are that the severe flooding in southern Russia affected demand for cars.
Avtovaz, which is Russia's biggest car producer, is expected to producer fewer than the 767,313 fully-assembled
cars it turned out in 2001 and 705,571 in 2000. The company itself has not yet said how many cars it expects to produce
in 2002, but it has said it produced 663,749 in the first 11 months of 2002, which was down 6% year-on-year.
Market trends prompted Avtovaz to stop its assembly lines from October 26 to November 9 and revise its annual
production target down, by 27,000 cars. Later, the company announced it would work shorter hours between November 26 and
December 28 and, to a lesser extent, in January.
Vladimir Torin, head of public relations at Ruspromavto, which represents GAZ, said this company's sales of
Volga cars, too, had been affected by record imports of second-hand cars. However this problem had been solved and GAZ
expects this year to produce more cars and commercial vehicles than in 2001. It has also received an order to make 5,000
Volga cars for Iraq early next year.
The year's target of 80,000 autos was almost met.
Kovrigin said the first half of 2003 would be hard for the Russian
car industry as well. The large number of cars imported in 2002 will
GAZ will still make fewer Volga cars this year, but next year the company will receive $20 million to modernize these
and improve quality and sales.
GAZ has now stopped its car assembly line until February. The line was also stopped at the start of November when
paint shop equipment was being replaced.
Izhmash-Avto, a subsidiary of Izhmash, a major engineering works from Udmurtia, stopped its automobile assembly line
from December 23 to January 12 owing to market factors. We have produced as many cars as the market can take, the
company said.
still have its effect, and in any case imports of cars between three and seven years old, for which duties have not
altered, will be significant.
But it is thought most foreign producers will increase new car sales in Russia in 2002. Sales of Volkswagen cars, for
example, grew 11.8% year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2002 to 18,988.
[CEIW] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
