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GM Negotiates Expansion in Russia
The American carmaker General Motors is negotiating with Russian car producers to expand its business in Russia, the company’s European head Carl-Peter Forster told journalists in St. Petersburg. He declined to name the companies involved in the negotiations, however. He also declined to comment on the possibility of teaming up with GAZ to produce an economy car.
Forster said that GM occupies an 11.3-percent share of the Russian market, up 2 percent from last year, and it plans to increase that share. GM president Fritz Henderson said that GM will sell up to 400,000 vehicles in Russia in 2008. The company’s previous plans were to sell about 300,000 cars here this year.
GM produces its cars in Shushary, outside St. Petersburg. Henderson said the plant in Shushary will reach its full capacity of 75,000 vehicles next year. It started at a capacity of 30,000 vehicles. The plant will produce the Chevrolet Captiva and Opel Antara. In mid-2009, it will also produce the Chevrolet Cruze and concentrate increasingly on it.
Investment in the Shushary plant was $300 million. GM began production in Russia in a rented workshop in September 2007. The company will bring the level of localization at the plant to 30 percent in 2010. GM makes cars and trucks in 33 countries. Its sales rose 3 percent last year to 9,369,524 vehicles with the Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall brands.
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