Nevsky Boxter

Porsche is being lured to the Leningrad region

The authorities of the Leningrad region yesterday announced their intention to locate an assembly plant for Porsche cars on their territory. Local officials hope that, having assessed the attractiveness of the region, the investor will be satisfied with the site for the conveyor offered to him here. However, this is far from the first project in the automotive industry that the government of the Leningrad region has announced. But so far only the only automobile plant of the American company Ford operates on its territory.

Yesterday, regional officials held negotiations with representatives of the Finnish Valmet Automative Oy, which outsources the assembly of a number of automobile brands. In particular, under a contract with Porsche, the company assembles the Porsche Boxter and Porsche Cayman at the Uusikaupunki plant. Regional authorities say it is “looking for a suitable site with existing production facilities that can be converted to include new production lines.” The regional government offered Finns a choice of four sites. A report from the regional press service notes that potential investors paid tribute to the “undoubted investment attractiveness of the Leningrad region.” The negotiators do not say which Porsche models may be assembled in Russia. But they note that the company wants to assemble up to 10 thousand cars at the first stage. According to the report, Valmet Automative is going to look at the proposed sites, and if it is satisfied, another round of negotiations will be held.

However, regional authorities have repeatedly talked about their negotiations with foreign automakers. But in the end, they either chose other regions (mainly St. Petersburg) or did not make a decision to build a plant at all. The latest story happened last fall, when Leningrad region officials met with a delegation from Hyundai Motor , as well as a number of auto parts manufacturers. The creation of a large auto-industrial cluster in the region was then spoken of as a done deal. The region reported then that the Korean automaker wants to assemble up to 200,000 vehicles a year here, and about two dozen more component suppliers will invest up to $300 million in their factories. However, Hyundai, having carefully weighed all the pros and cons, chose St. Petersburg, whose representatives, by the way, never told the public about the pending negotiations, preferring to report only about the signing of the contract. As a result, five car factories are being built or will be built in St. Petersburg - Toyota (already producing cars), Nissan, GM, Suzuki and Hyundai. And only Ford production operates in the region. At the same time, regional officials hinted at the possibility that Toyota, Nissan or Volkswagen (located in the Kaluga region) could choose the outskirts of St. Petersburg. But this did not happen either. The Leningrad region had high hopes for Daimler Chrysler, but this company simply chose not to come to Russia.

The attraction of automakers to St. Petersburg is largely due not only to objective reasons of logistics or local laws, but also to a powerful subjective factor - the special status and influence of Governor Valentina Matvienko. It was she who, at the end of last year, having acquired Hyundai, said that five car factories were enough for the city. So now the Leningrad region has a chance.

Alexander DAVYDOV