Skip to content

Russian Engineering Union and AvtoVAZ team up to develop auto industry in St. Petersburg

Member of the Bureau of the Russian Engineering Union and AVTOVAZ President Maksim Sokolov, who was appointed to the curator of regional unit of Engineering Union in St. Petersburg, held the first meeting in this function

Member of the Bureau of the Russian Engineering Union and AVTOVAZ President Maksim Sokolov, who was appointed to the curator of regional unit of Engineering Union in St. Petersburg, held the first meeting in this function. The working meeting in St. Petersburg was attended by Vice Governor of St. Petersburg Kirill Polyakov, Chairman of Industrial Policy, Innovation and Trade Committee of St. Petersburg Kirill Soloveichik, Chairman of regional unit of Engineering Union in St. Petersburg Aleksandr Gurov and council members of the regional branch.

In the opening speech, Maksim Sokolov confirmed AVTOVAZ plans to launch car production in 2HY at the former NISSAN plant is St. Petersburg. Production output in 2023 may reach 10K units depending on the dynamics of demand in the Russian car market.

In 2025-2027 production of new LADA cars in St. Petersburg may reach 50-70K units a year if there is a positive trend in the market.

Meeting participants also discussed development prospect of auto component industry of the city. St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region has more than 30 component suppliers, but their production output has significantly decreased as of today and some have even suspended operations. According to the management of St. Petersburg regional branch of Engineering Union, only the state course on deepening localization in the auto industry can provide sufficient sales volume and the basis for recovery and growth of component industry. Meeting participants agreed that measures of industrial state stimulation should be focused on production and sales of high-localized products. On the contrary, if the budget support is provided to the so called “CKD assembly”, this will result in inefficiency of investments in R&D, loss of engineering competencies and retrogression of Russian engineering industry.

The parties also discussed a number of practical steps. Thus, the regional branch of Engineering Union in St. Petersburg will create a register of auto component supplying companies operating on the territory of the city, and AVTOVAZ Purchasing Service intends to make a visiting session to consider the opportunities of potential nomination of these suppliers to AVTOVAZ Group projects. At the same time, the component industry development to be successful, the stimulation mechanisms, for example, such as preferential loans of Industrial Development Fund are of high importance. It is extremely important, these mechanisms to be provided with sufficient funding.

During the meeting, the parties also discussed prospects for promoting new LADA cars in the region, as well as other Russian-made vehicles as part of the existing “Choose Russian-made products” Federal project.

SOURCE: Lada

Welcome back , to continue browsing the site, please click here