In Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, the conveyor of the “Asia Auto” enterprise for the assembly of Lada cars has stopped production. This was reported by Kommersant, citing sources.
The authorities of the republic accused the plant of non-fulfillment of obligations about industrial assembly and demanded to return money in the amount of 30.8 billion rubles, which were received in the form of benefits. The company is currently downsizing.
The production of Lada was stopped back in November, when the industrial assembly agreement with Asia Auto was terminated. In February, the plant lost a court case to the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development. They argued that the company was the only one that did not fulfill the agreement. All others have commissioned welding and painting equipment.
As noted in the material, the claims coincided with the launch of Saryarkaavtoprom, where old Chevrolet models are produced and there are sites for assembling Hyundai Astana Motors. The production of Kia, which used to be assembled at “Asia Auto”, has also begun there. It was proposed to move the assembly of AvtoVAZ vehicles to this site.
The Russian company said that they are studying the situation in one of the key export markets and expect to strengthen their presence there. Nevertheless, at present, sales of Lada cars in Kazakhstan have dropped significantly.
In the past year, 17.5 thousand Lada were delivered to the republic. Domestic production of these machines increased to 15.9 thousand units. This is less than Hyundai, Chevrolet and Ravon, but more than Kia and JAC.
Earlier it became known that in January of this year, Lada sales in the EU countries to AvtoVAZ collapsed three times, only 62 cars were sold.