Canadians, Russians to Make Chryslers
The Canadian company Magna will build a plant in Russia to assemble Chryslers. The project is estimated to be worth $500 million. Oleg Deripaska's Russian machines will be a partner in it. According to the application filed with the Ministry of Industry and Energy, the plant will have a capacity of 150,000 cars per year with the possibility of increasing the capacity to twice that amount. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade also signed a memorandum on the plant with Magna over the weekend. It is not known what models of Chrysler will be produced in the plant.
Russian Machines became a co-owner of Magna in September. Magna owns a plant in Austria that assembles 220,000 BMWs, Mercedes Benzes, Saabs and Chryslers per year. It also signed an agreement with AvtoVAZ in 2006 to build a new plant in Togliatti, but no action has been taken on that project yet.
Chrysler has weak sales in Russia. Its Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler models sold 4900 cars in the first ten months of the year, making them the 32nd, 38th and 40th most popular makes in the country. Furthermore, Chrysler sales fell by 13 percent in that period, even as foreign car sales increased by 64 percent. Russian Machines already co-owns an auto plant with General Motors that produces 300,000 cars per year.
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All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 12, 2007
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