Translated material
Twice into the same river
Fiat begins expansion into the Russian market through Severstal-Auto
Since September, Severstal-Auto has begun promoting the Fiat brand on the Russian market and selling cars from the Italian company. By the end of this year, Severstal-Auto, as its general director Vadim Shvetsov said at a press conference, will sell 2,400 cars produced by Fiat. But next year the company intends to sell 36.5 thousand different Fiat models. The company's main bet is on the Albea and Doblo models, which will be assembled at Severstal's facilities at ZMA (Mini Car Plant, Naberezhnye Chelny). The company expects to produce approximately 900 cars of each brand by the end of this year. True, she has not yet decided on the price of cars produced in Russia.In addition, such Fiat models as Grande Punto (from 420 thousand rubles in Russia, in Europe - from 11.1 thousand euros), Fiat Panda (from 340 thousand rubles) will be sold through the Severstal dealer network. ), Fiat Croma (from 840 thousand rubles) and Fiat Doblo (from 365 thousand rubles).
Starting next year, Severstal-Auto is going to launch another project: in the special economic zone in Yelabuga, the company will assemble a Fiat Ducato commercial van. At the same time, production will be located at the facilities of the Yelabuga Automobile Plant, which the American automobile corporation General Motors previously used to assemble its own cars (in the 90s, the Chevrolet Blazer and Opel Vectra were assembled there, but production was curtailed with minimal assembly volumes. - Ed. . ). According to Mr. Shvetsov, the use of existing infrastructure will allow Severstal-Auto to speed up the process of preparing the production of the Fiat Ducato: “Speed will allow us to gain competitive advantages in the future,” he said, adding that the infrastructure created with the participation of General Motors the enterprise will significantly speed up the process of its launch.
The plant in Yelabuga is expected to assemble up to 75 thousand Ducato annually. The company plans to reach its design capacity as early as 2009, and the conveyor will begin operating in 2007. At the same time, Severstal-Auto expects that almost from the very beginning of production it will run a full cycle, starting with stamping. However, Mr. Shvetsov found it difficult to determine the volume of investment in Ducato production: “Until the business plan is finalized and the results of tenders among contractors who will supply equipment and install it are summed up, we cannot give an exact figure.” But he promised to do it in a month. Severstal-Auto intends to export some of the Ducato cars assembled in Yelabuga, to which Fiat has agreed, but the company has not yet decided on the export share. The future price of the “Russian” Ducato is also unclear, but Mr. Shvetsov promised that it will be lower than its imported counterparts.
Ducato production will be carried out under industrial assembly mode. As the Severstal press service told Vremya Novostey, the company intends to make additions to the agreement on this project that it signed with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and the Ministry of Industry and Energy on the industrial assembly of Korean Ssang Yongs.