Package for the automotive industry

The government will save the industry as a whole

Measures to support the domestic automobile industry may be presented today at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, which will be held at the AvtoVAZ production site. “We must analyze everything that has been done recently so that at one of the enterprises - AvtoVAZ - we can offer a balanced package of effective support measures for both specific enterprises and the industry as a whole,” the prime minister said at a meeting on Saturday with deputy prime ministers Igor Sechin and Alexey Kudrin. In a crisis, the auto industry deserves special attention, Mr. Putin said, noting that experts, the government and representatives of the industry itself have different points of view on what measures are most effective.

According to some reports, the meeting will primarily focus on the shortage of funds for current needs and long-term credit resources to finance industry investment programs. The auto industry was one of the first to feel the consequences of the global financial crisis. Thus, in January-February 2009, compared to the same period last year, the production of passenger cars decreased by 68.9%, to 65.1 thousand units. At the same time, the production of foreign cars decreased by more than 80%, to 40.15 thousand units, trucks - by almost 80%, to 8.7 thousand, buses - by 76.8%, to 2.4 thousand The main problem for automakers is a sharp drop in demand. Experts call another problem of the industry the shortage of working capital among automobile enterprises. Thus, AvtoVAZ needs about 26 billion rubles to support production. On March 18, the situation at the plant was discussed by the government commission on ensuring economic sustainability, headed by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. According to him, they discussed the possibility of lending under state guarantees and an additional issue of shares. However, neither the first nor the second option satisfied the parties, and the decision was postponed for two weeks.

The Gorky Automobile Plant obtained consent from the authorities to receive state support on February 4. The Commission to Increase the Sustainability of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, headed by Mr. Shuvalov, then made a fundamental decision that GAZ could not go bankrupt, but it did not determine how to help the automobile plant. “The Ministry of Economic Development was instructed to prepare appropriate proposals,” the government press service reported then. Meanwhile, there were more and more people wanting to collect debts from the car plant every day. Claims against GAZ for debt compensation were filed by the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, Severstal and the Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works, the head of which, Vladimir Lisin, generally declared the need for bankruptcy of the plant. On March 20, Mr. Shuvalov said that the government had carried out some work with the creditors of the GAZ group and that they “understand the need to restructure the enterprise’s debt.” “We are reaching certain joint decisions,” Mr. Shuvalov said, adding that the government recognized the GAZ rehabilitation program as one of the best and quite professional. GAZ's goal is to obtain government guarantees in order to soften the policy of creditor banks regarding the restructuring of the group's debts.

It must be said that the government has already allocated 6 billion rubles to stabilize the industry. to reimburse part of the costs of loans received by Russian exporters, as well as 2.5 billion rubles. to subsidize part of the costs of repaying interest on loans received by automotive and transport engineering organizations for technological re-equipment. In addition, customs and tariff regulation measures were taken aimed at protecting domestic manufacturers of automotive and special-purpose equipment - import duty rates were increased for the entire range of automotive equipment, including used ones. The government also allocated 12.5 billion rubles in 2009. for the state purchase of automotive equipment produced in the country.

It is still unclear what form of support for the auto industry the authorities will choose. Experts told the Vremya Novostey correspondent that most likely we will talk about providing loans and government guarantees.

From March 30 to April 6, Toyota will stop production at the plant near St. Petersburg. The company made this decision “due to the difficult economic and market situation,” INTERFAX reports. During this period, the company's employees will receive 2/3 of the average salary. From April 7, the plant will continue to operate as usual. The Toyota St. Petersburg plant has more than 750 employees. The enterprise started operating at the end of December 2007; in 2008 it was planned to produce 16 thousand cars. However, in the first half of the year the output volume was only 1.5 thousand.

Irina TSYRULEVA