Russia automobile producers ask to protect them from Uzbek Nexia
Nexia cars, produced by GM-Uzbekistan plant in the Uzbek city of Asaka since 1996, have been popular among Russian customers for long period.
In the recession period the demand for these economy-class cars grew up. According to official Russian statistics, in April, August and September of 2009 Nexia ranked third on sales of the foreign cars in Russia.
In Russian market the brand is represented by over 10 options, including Low Cost option, priced at 229 thousand rubles (which is less than 9 thousand US dollars). It has to be mentioned that Russia is the main export market for Uzbek Daewoo.
Such situation along with protectionist policy of Uzbek government in relation to its automobile industry produced indignation among big Russian carmakers. They addressed Vladimir Putin with the request to impose restrictions for the sales of Uzbek cars in Russia, specifically, popular models of Matiz and Nexia, Interfax reports.
The letter was signed by AutoVAZ President Igor Komarov, GAS Group CEO Sergey Zanozin and OJSC Sollers General Director Vadim Shvecov. The leaders of the industry point out that in Uzbekistan, the most populous country in Central Asia, the government creates barriers for the sale of Russian cars.
The letter indicates that at the beginning of this year the government of Uzbekistan imposed "strict restrictive measures, targeted at the protection of GM Uzbekistan". Specifically, "it totally prohibited the currency conversion for the firms, representing Russian carmakers in Uzbekistan; besides, the government shut consumer loan programs for the foreign cars while the imported vehicles are the subject for additional highway-user tax", Interfax quotes the authors.
Russian carmakers propose to make counter-moves against GM Uzbekistan export to Russia. According to Uzbek State Committee for Statistics, in 9 months of this year GM Uzbekistan increased production of cars by 4% to 144.6 thousand items, including 60 thousand Nexia and almost 50 thousand Matiz.
European business association reports that in 10 month of 2009 23275 Daewoo Nexia and 19886 Daewoo Matiz were sold in Russia.
The letter, addressed to Prime-Minister, proposed to tie currency conversion for the cars, imported from Uzbekistan, to currency conversion for Russian vehicles, exported to Uzbekistan. Moreover, the car industry leaders suggested introducing additional duties on Uzbek automobiles.
Therefore, in the opinion of authors, it will create "equal conditions for the carmakers of two countries".
AutoVAZ representatives note that in March of 2009 former President Boris Aleshin already sent similar letter, addressed to deputy Economic Development Minister Andrey Klepach with the same complaints: due to delays in local currency conversion into US dollars and rubles the importers were not able to pay back to AutoVAZ for on time that de facto initiated cease of Lada imports to Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, Gazeta.Ru learned from the sources in Russian Federation that no measures have been taken yet to limit the import of Matiz and Nexia.