JAN. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan increased its car production in 2013 by 4.8% to 251,342, media quoted the state’s statistical department as saying. The biggest increase was in truck production. Uzbekistan has boosted its car manufacturing base considerably over the past five years or so.
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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
JAN. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — From April 1, cars that don’t conform to the EU’s Euro-4 level of emissions will be banned from being imported into Azerbaijan, Sabig Abdullayev, director of the Azerbaijan Standardisation and Certification Institute said.
This is important because it will change the shape of Azerbaijan’s car market.
Euro-4 is part of a grading scheme the EU created to measure the amount of emissions from cars. The EU introduced Euro-4 grade in 2005. A few years later carmakers in other countries introduced a similar emissions grade.
There is now a Euro-5 grade and later this year Euro-6 will be introduced.
By jumping from the current minimum Euro-2 standard to Euro-4, Azerbaijan is playing catch up. But it is only catching up for cars being imported. Cars made in Azerbaijan can still be produced legally at a worse emissions standard.
And there is also the small issue of the quality of fuel. Refineries in Azerbaijan only currently produce fuel to meet Euro-2 grade. This is being changed to hit Euro-3 but is still off the Euro-4 benchmark.
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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
JAN. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — From April 1, cars that don’t meet the Euro-4 emissions standard will be barred from being imported into Azerbaijan, government officials said. The decision will change the car market in Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
JAN. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Highlighting China’s increased interest in business in the south Caucasus, executives from the Nakhchivan Automobile Plant in south Azerbaijan flew to Chongqing for talks on expanding its cooperation with Lifan, a Chinese car brand. Nakhchivan Automobile Plant plans to produce 2,500 to 3,000 Lifan cars this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
DEC. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will produce 50% more cars in 2014 than it did in 2013, Kazakhstan’s Auto Business Association (ABA) said. The forecast is another indication of just how fast Kazakhstan’s car-making business has expanded. In 2014, the ABA said that Kazakhstan would produce 53,000 cars, 25% of total domestic demand.
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(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)
NOV. 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps reflecting a Russian economic slowdown, sales of cars to Russia at the GM Uzbekistan factory have fallen by a third so far this year compared to 2012, media reported quoting data from the Association of European Business. Russia is the factory’s biggest market. Russia’s economy is vital for Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Battered German cars once dominated the streets of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city. They were old and rusting but still powerful and reliable.
Crucially, too, it was cheaper to buy a second-hand car in Europe and drive it to Kazakhstan than to buy a new one made at a Kazakh factory.
That’s now changed.
When Kazakhstan entered the Customs Union it slapped an import tax on second-hand cars from Europe. The main beneficiary of this has been Russia’s AvtoVaz which makes the Lada brand of car.
It’s now cheaper to buy a Lada from Russia or a car made in Kazakhstan than it is to import a second-hand banger from Europe.
Figures released last week by the Association of Kazakhstan Auto dealers showed that Lada made up 35% of new car sales out of the 117,000 sold in the first nine months of the year. This is already five times more than the number sold in the whole of 2010.
And more and more cars are being made in Kazakhstan. AvtoVaz owns a 25 percent stake in Azyia Avto, a Kazakh carmaker and it now plans to open a factory building Ladas in Ust Kamenogorsk by 2016.
But shifting Russian manufacturing to Kazakhstan could have far-reaching consequences, said Vsevolod Samokhvalov, a researcher and analyst at Cambridge University.
“It will lock the country (Kazakhstan) into the disadvantaged low added-value part of the post-Soviet production chain,” he said.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — US car maker GM will add production of the Chevrolet Gentra to its plant in Uzbekistan later this year, media reported. The plant is a major component of Uzbekistan’s car industry. Media also quoted a senior official at Uzavtosanoat, the state-linked car production company, saying the industry was now worth $3b a year.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
JULY 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Czech car-maker Skoda will start producing its saloon car the Octavia in Kazakhstan from this month, media reported, highlighting the Kazakh public’s growing demand for new cars. Skoda, owned by Germany’s Volkswagen, produces cars at a plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk, eastern Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)
JUNE 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an open letter on its website, a Kazakh law firm acting for the local subsidiary of Japanese car manufacturer Toyota said that it wanted makers of counterfeit goods carrying its brand to be prosecuted.
The open letter is important as it acts as a warning. The car market in Kazakhstan is booming, fresh figures showed that new car sales continued to increase last year, and Western brands are looking to establish themselves.
The market is growing, the technical know-how to build the cars is in place but protection for Western brand’s intellectual property rights can often be lacking.
Toyota, which also produces cars under the Lexus brand, has previously flagged up counterfeit goods in Kazakhstan as a problem. The latest letter highlights that point.
For Toyota, defending its brand is especially important as it was only in February that it signed a deal to start producing cars at a plant in Kostanay, north Kazakhstan.
The issue of brand protection is also increasing important for Kazakhstan on a wider level.
As more and more Western companies with well-established brands enter the country and as WTO membership nears, Kazakhstan’s officials, legislators and prosecutors have to ensure that robust brand protection is in place.
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(News report from Issue No. 140, published on June 24 2013)
