| Chekhov was asked from the car plant The management of the Izhevsk Automobile Plant refused to participate in the joint venture that existed since 1999 with the Czech company Skoda Auto SA. The Czech side had to agree. There is no longer talk of creating a joint production facility for assembling cars, although the Czechs do not lose hope of continuing to work independently at the plant.
The reason for the change in initial plans was the strict demand of the Skoda company to completely stop production at the Izhevsk Izh car plant and switch to the assembly of Czech-designed cars.
According to Izhevsk residents, the refusal to implement the joint project is primarily due to a change in the investment doctrine in the Russian market of the German Volkswagen AG, which bought the Czech company in November last year. Not the least role was played by the low consumer demand in Russia for the entire model range of Skoda cars (sales volume in 2000 - 2.8 thousand, in 1999 - 1.5 thousand cars).
The head of the press service of the Izhevsk plant, Inna Levykina, told a correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper that the cost of the project was initially estimated at $250 million. It was assumed that 75% of the authorized capital would belong to the German concern, and 25% to the Izhevsk plant. The annual volume of assembly production was planned at 100 thousand cars per year. As a share in the authorized capital, Izhevsk residents were ready to provide the main assembly line of the plant, auxiliary workshops and equipment. However, things did not go beyond signing the documents.
The fact is that at the beginning of negotiations with representatives of the Czech company in 1998, the Izhevsk plant was in dire need of working capital and investment in its main production and therefore willingly agreed to the proposed alliance.
While the Czechs were negotiating the terms of future dividends, Izhmash-Avto found more efficient investors - the Volzhsky Automobile Plant and the Samara Investment Company (SIC). After signing a trilateral agreement in March last year, SIK invested about 450 million rubles in the development of the Izhevsk plant. The increase in production volumes last year compared to the previous year was about 100% and reached 27.4 thousand cars - mainly the Izh-2126 Oda model. In 2001, they plan to assemble at least 60 thousand cars at the Izhevsk plant.
Despite the failed joint project, Volkswagen AG managers nevertheless continue to be interested in creating their own production in Udmurtia, whose government has promised German entrepreneurs duty-free import of components. Volkswagen AG does not lose hope of organizing its own assembly production at the plant. At negotiations in Prague, representatives of the concern stated that they were ready to invest more than $500 million in the new project. Alexander KRIVTSOV |
|
