The Czech Skoda models - Octavia and SuperB - may disappear from the range of Russian car dealerships. The government threatens to respond to the prohibitive duties imposed by the Czech Republic on Russian fertilizers with additional duties on these cars.

Until recently, Skoda cars were among the most popular foreign cars in Russia. Last year, the company took 2nd place (9,444 cars - this is about 2% of Skoda's total production), but in the first half of this year it moved to 10th place (3,750 cars sold) - mainly due to the growth of the euro exchange rate, in which the plant sets export prices.

And yesterday, a source in the commission on protective measures in foreign trade, on condition of anonymity, told Vedomosti that an additional 6% duty could be introduced for Skoda cars. In this way, officials want to stand up for Russian exporters of ammonium nitrate (ammonium nitrate, one of the most common fertilizers). The fact is that in August last year, the Czech government began a protective investigation into the import of ammonium nitrate, in February it introduced a temporary duty of 35%, and on August 6 of this year - a permanent one.

Information about a possible increase in duties has caused despondency among traders. Skoda sales may come to zero, believes Andrey Yanyshev, CEO of the capital dealer of the Czech company Pelican Auto. "[Supplies] of Skoda will simply stop," echoes Sergey Alekseychuk, a member of the board of the capital company Avtomir. "Their market is already problematic."

A representative of the agrochemical holding EuroChem, who asked not to be named, declined to comment on the current initiative of the Ministry of Economic Development, noting that the volumes of ammonium nitrate supplies to the Czech Republic were "insignificant." Indeed, according to the State Customs Committee data cited by Interfax, the average annual volume of Russian ammonium nitrate supplies to the Czech Republic is $1.4 million. A source for Vedomosti in the protective measures commission estimated the upcoming losses of fertilizer exporters at $1.5 million. A EuroChem employee agrees that the 35% duty on ammonium nitrate is "prohibitive."

In general, according to a EuroChem employee, the government has recently been actively protecting the interests of Russian exporters: this year, the governments of Slovakia and Ukraine decided not to impose restrictions on the supply of ammonium nitrate after the Ministry of Economic Development entered into negotiations.

But officials are trying not to offend Russian consumers either. "When choosing a product as a countermeasure, we proceeded from the fact that this product should be significant in the volume of Czech exports to Russia, but so that it would not be a big blow to our consumers," says a source in the commission on protective measures. According to him, the restriction may only affect Skoda models with an engine capacity of 1.5 to 2 liters.

In the Skoda range, such engines are installed in the Octavia (2,067 of them were sold in Russia in the first half of the year) and SuperB (179). Factory prices for the Octavia start at approximately $10,000, so in the first half of the year, more than $20 million worth of Octavia was imported to Russia - this is more than 6% of imports from the Czech Republic to Russia, which amounted to $300.7 million in the first half of the year, according to the State Customs Committee.

The additional duty will increase the price of the car by 8%, predicts Alekseychuk from Avtomir. However, analyst of FC NIKoil Vyacheslav Smolyaninov believes that it is too early to talk about losses for Skoda. "The government's intention to introduce protective measures looks like a demonstration, and the situation with duties may change in the future," he says.

It is unknown how Volkswagen, which owns Skoda, will react to what is happening: the Moscow and German offices of the concern, as representatives of Skoda, refused to comment yesterday.

Skoda compared to fertilizers