The city's factories are almost fully loaded

St. Petersburg automobile plants are approaching the limit of their production capabilities. It takes a long time to build new capacities. However, a further increase in production, beyond the volumes declared by the plants, is possible due to work on weekends, which will increase their capacity from 370 to 500 thousand cars per year, experts say.

In the first ten months of 2011, the St. Petersburg automobile plants of Hyundai, General Motors, Nissan and Toyota produced 196.8 thousand cars, of which 29.7 thousand cars were produced in October, which is almost four times more than the same period last year, the agency calculated "Auto-Dealer-SPb".

The St. Petersburg auto industry is approaching the limit of its capabilities. The total declared capacity of the four factories is 370 thousand cars per year, which allows them to produce up to 31 thousand cars per month, says agency director Mikhail Chaplygin. In his opinion, the city’s factories will be able to reach such volumes in the first quarter of next year.

To do this, the GM plant must fully employ the third shift, launched in early October, and the Toyota plant must increase the assembly of updated Camry sedans, whose production started in St. Petersburg this month. The capacities of the Hyundai and Nissan factories are already fully loaded, both enterprises are working around the clock. The Japanese company's plant switched to three shifts in June, and the South Korean company's in August.

According to the estimates of the city committee for economic development, industrial policy and trade (KERPPiT), about 250 thousand cars will be produced in the city this year, and a maximum of 370 thousand next year.

Only the GM plant has so far announced further expansion of capacity. The general director of the enterprise, Romuald Rytvinski, says that by the end of 2014 the plant’s capacity will increase to 230 thousand cars per year. By this time, the Toyota plant must also decide to expand its capacity to 200 thousand cars per year.

However, next year the plant for the production of hybrid cars "E-auto" (a joint project of the Yarovit holding and the ONEXIM group) can slightly increase the overall productivity of the St. Petersburg automobile industry. The general director of E-auto, Andrei Biryukov, promises to launch an enterprise with a capacity of 45 thousand vehicle sets per year in the fall of next year.

Other enterprises also have resources: now they work five days a week, and if there is a lack of capacity, they can start working on weekends, one of the trade union leaders of St. Petersburg is sure. This, according to his estimates, is about a hundred additional working days per year, which, with round-the-clock work, will increase the total capacity of the city’s factories from 370 to 500 thousand cars per year.

Maxim Vertman

The auto industry is at its limit