| The assembly of French cars in Moscow has not started Car production at the Russian-French joint venture Avtoframos in Moscow is still ongoing. The assembly of cars was stopped last summer, it was planned to resume it in the fall and winter. But after completing the installation of the assembly line in the new building, the company did not begin assembling the Clio Simbol and Megane models.
According to Avtoframos press secretary Ian Dorizon, the company's managers decided not to launch the main conveyor until the issue of abolishing customs duties on imported components is finally resolved with the Russian authorities. The abolition of duties is provided for by the investment agreement signed back in 1999 between Avtoframos and Miekonomiki. However, as the press service of the enterprise reported, this point of the agreement was not fulfilled.
Let us recall that the founders of the Avtoframos joint venture, created in July 1998, were the automobile concern Renault and the Moscow government. At the end of June last year, the founders decided to increase the authorized capital by $117 million. To secure its share, the capital government provided the joint venture with a plot of land and production premises of the former assembly shop of the Moskvich automobile plant, where the newly commissioned conveyor was built. Taking into account its capacity, Avtoframos expects to establish production of 100 thousand cars per year. Meanwhile, last year they managed to assemble only 800 cars here - this is a third of all Renault cars sold by Avtoframos in Russia. As Ian Dorizon stated, “it turned out to be much more profitable for the company to supply finished cars to Russia than to assemble them on the basis of a joint venture.” Alexander KRIVTSOV |
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