Vedomosti – St. Petersburg Hyundai, Nissan and Toyota plants have manufactured 10,600 automobiles in January 2016, which is equivalent to a 46% year-on-year decline, as stated by Auto-Dealer-SPb.
Hyundai has manufactured 6700 Hyundai and KIA automobiles in January, which is 53% below last year’s production figures. A factory representative relates the decline to the suspension of production until 21 January, due to the preparations for the production of the new model Creta. Hyundai has manufactured 229,500 vehicles in 2015 (4% decline compared to 2014). The shrinkage in sales is due to the drop in the exports of Hyundai and KIA from 25,700 to 14,200 vehicles. Ukraine was the main export market for the Hyundai plant between 2011-2013. The products were also being delivered to Kazakhstan, Belarus and Azerbaijan. As told by a company representative, due to measures taken by Ukraine in order to protect its national car industry, Kazakhstan has become the main export market for Hyundai, with a share of more than 80%, since 2014. According to the representative, no new export markets are being considered at the moment and no exports were made in January.
Toyota and Nissan plants do not disclose monthly figures, however, according to Auto-Dealer-SPb, 3900 vehicles have rolled off the production lines of the two factories in January. 32,882 Toyota Camry have been manufactured at the St. Petersburg branch of Toyota Motor LLC in 2015 (-10% year-on-year), 2063 for Kazakhstan market and 259 for Belarus, the company representative said. The production of Toyota RAV will start at the factory, to be exported to the aforementioned countries, the representative added. St. Petersburg Nissan factory has manufactured more than 33,600 vehicles in 2015, which is equivalent to a 6% year-on-year rise. The analysts from the agency state that Toyota and Nissan plants almost repeated last year’s car production figures in January: “Car production remained below last year’s figures in St. Petersburg, due to suspension at Hyundai plant and the absence of GM production, which manufactured approximately 2000 vehicles in January 2015).
Adjustments are being made in the production plan at Hyundai plant, as told by the company representative. In January, the factory predicted the production figure for 2016 as within the limits of 215,000 vehicles, however, yesterday the representative of the plant adjusted the production plan to more than 200,000 automobiles. The reasons behind the adjustment have not been disclosed.
