Page 105 - RPTRusFeb17

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9.2.2 Automotive corporate news
Russia's largest carmaker Avtovaz posted a 5% year-on-year increase in sales to over 16,300 vehicles in January 2017, Vedomosti reported on February 7, citing sources close to the company that attributed the growth to low base and competitive pricing. The sales numbers of the first month of 2017 were the best in five years, according to the daily, with the share of Avtovaz on the Russian car market estimated at about 20%. Sales of new Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) in Russia in 2016 declined by 11% to 1.43mn units , according to the report of the Association of European Businesses (AEB) that monitors the industry.
Russia’s car producer AvtoVAZ intends to export up to 10,000 vehicles to China annually, the government of the Samara region, where the carmaker is located, said on Monday. “In 2018-2019, the situation may change and the company may have a profit. This will lead to higher salaries for the staff and a new basis for development,” he said.
Russia’s UAZ automotive company has arrived on the Iranian market
after striking a deal with Iran's Tavan Khodro Jey, the sole distributor of Opel cars in the Islamic Republic, the Financial Tribune reported on February 21. UAZ is introducing three vehicle models to the Iranian market of 80 million people, namely two types of UAZ-branded pickup trucks and the large SUV Patriot vehicle. A Tavan Khodro representative said the company is to start the production of the three vehicles within the rest of the year ahead as part of a wider push by the Russian automaker to gain a foothold on the Iranian market. Car production in Iran by the end of the current Iranian year (ends March 20) should surpass more than 1.3mn vehicles, say analysts.
Ford has become the first major foreign carmaker in Russia to see sales grow after three bad years , potentially vindicating its decision to double down on a notoriously volatile market when rivals decided to cut and run. Sales of cars in Russia have fallen by more than half since a 2012 peak of 2.9mn vehicles, due to an economic crisis brought on by low oil prices and Western sanctions. The market fell by 11% last year, and was down a further 5% in January from a year earlier. Ford's big US rival General Motors pulled out of Russia two years ago. But Ford chose not only to stay, but to keep investing, launching new models with modifications designed to suit the country's harsh driving conditions. Since 2011, its joint venture with Sollers SVAZ.MM, a Russian partner, has ploughed $1.5bn into making cars locally to local specifications. Now Ford's sales have turned a corner and rose 10% last year, an achievement the company says is proof its strategy is at last paying off. The 40,000 Fords sold in Russia last year are still barely more than a fifth of the almost 190,000 vehicles the company sold in 2008, before the global financial crisis brought the first of two collapses in the Russian car industry in less than a decade.
The Moscow Region has signed an investment contract for construction of a Mercedes car plant , Governor Andrei Vorobyov said. This is the first new large investment into Russia since sanctions were imposed. “Nine copies of an investment contract for construction of a Mercedes plant. I have just signed them on behalf of the Moscow Region. We are sending it to the Industry and Trade Ministry of Russia,” he said. On January 13, Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said that Mercedes-Benz will start construction of the car plant in
105 RUSSIA Country Report February 2017 www.intellinews.com