AvtoVAZ, Sollers to Drive to Venezuela Together
AvtoVAZ and Sollers (former Severstal-Avto) have set to negotiations about constructing a carmaker in Venezuela that will assemble Lada and UAZ. The partners count on the project to advance to the markets of Latin America, but the experts forecast that the Russians will finally sell assembly licenses to Venezuela.
Led by Vice Premier Igor Sechin, a delegation of Russia’s top-ranked bureaucrats and entrepreneurs returned from Venezuela at the end of past week. One of the members, AvtoVAZ President Boris Aleshin told Kommersant that, in tandem with Sollers CEO Vladimir Shvetsov, he had negotiated with Venezuela’s authorities the construction of an automobile plant there.
It was Venezuela that proposed the project. During a month or two, the parties will agree on its actual configuration. If Venezuela undertakes to fund the construction, the Russians will sell the assembly licenses, Aleshin specified. The joint plant of AvtoVAZ and Sollers will be able to “produce dozens of thousand cars a year,” Aleshin pointed out. .
“Our competitors, General Motors or Toyota, sell up to 60,000 cars,” the official said. “Besides, in Venezuela, they have the customs mode that is very similar to our industrial assembly [duty-free import of car components for assembly of wheeled vehicles], so the project is worth thinking.”
It is the first time that Russia’s carmakers have closed the ranks to construct joint automobile facilities. Besides, all previous projects to be implemented overseas (for instance, the Lada assembly in Cuba) provided for the assembly of no more than 3,000 to 4,000 cars a year. This time, however, AvtoVAZ and Sollers say that their product lines add to one another and the joint plant will pave the way for advancing to markets of Latin America.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 22, 2008
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