Translated material
Let's come in large numbers
By 2010, Russia will produce about a million foreign cars per year
Foreign automakers continue to develop the Russian market . Yesterday it became known about the plans of the Korean Hyundai Motor to build a plant in the north-west of Russia, and Peugeot-Citroen seems to have chosen the Nizhny Novgorod region. If we summarize the existing plans of global automobile companies, it turns out that in three to four years over a million foreign cars will be assembled in Russia per year. For comparison: AvtoVAZ produced 966 thousand cars in 2006.The authorities of the Leningrad region met yesterday with Hyundai general manager Chang Ju Cho and accompanying representatives of 20 Korean manufacturers of automotive components. According to the press service of the regional government, Chan Ju Cho informed officials about the company’s intentions to build a plant “in the territory of one of the regions of northwestern Russia.” The Korean automaker is considering sites in both St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, officials from both federal subjects say. Suzuki, Toyota, Nissan and GM are building their own factories in the city, and Ford has been assembling Ford cars in the region for several years. Moreover, if previously Hyundai planned to build a plant in Russia with a capacity of up to 100 thousand cars per year, now, according to regional officials, Chan Ju Cho promises to produce here up to 200 thousand per year, which will require investments of up to 400 million dollars. At the same time This year, the Taganrog Automobile Plant will assemble 50 thousand Hyudai cars, and next year their number will increase to 80 thousand.
About $300 million more will be invested into their enterprises by component manufacturers, who were also introduced yesterday to potential industrial zones in the Leningrad Region. It seems that Hyundai knows Russian specifics very well - the company is aware that even before building an assembly plant in Russia, it needs to worry about bringing suppliers of components and parts here. The press service of the Leningrad region government says that the possibility of locating their production facilities in the region is being actively studied by such Korean component suppliers as Dymos.Inc, Daewon San Up Co.ltd, Dongwon Metal, Glovis Co Ltd, Tong Hae Electrics Industries, Mandro Corporation, Sewon Ecs Co Ltd.
Yesterday, the mayor of the city of Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod region, Viktor Portnov, announced that in about three years Peugeot-Citroen will build a plant with a capacity of 250 thousand cars with an investment of about 300 million euros. This summer, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and the company signed an agreement to create production in Russia, although where it will be located has not yet been announced. The company itself yesterday did not confirm the information that the Nizhny Novgorod site had been chosen, saying that the decision should be made before the end of the year.
The largest automobile plant owned by a foreign company in Russia so far is Ford - this year it will assemble 75 thousand cars, and next year it promises 125 thousand. We can only talk about the plans of other enterprises in the future tense - their factories are still under construction. But if the projects of Peugeot-Citroen and Hyundai come true, then they will hold the palm in terms of production volumes. After all, for example, Volkswagen is still talking about 115 thousand cars per year, Toyota and Nissan want to start with 50 thousand and double production in the future. All this will give approximately 970 thousand foreign cars per year in a few years. However, even such a high increase in the production of foreign cars is unlikely to be able to satisfy the galloping demand for them, which is growing by at least 50% per year. But, as representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade say, several more automobile companies are “on the way,” including the Japanese Mitsubishi and several Chinese manufacturers, including Great Wall.