Tag Archives: automobiles

Honda says it is pulling out of Kazakhstan

ALMATY, SEPT. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Japanese car-maker Honda has decided to quit the Kazakh and the Russian markets until economic conditions improve, media reported.

Honda’s final shipment of cars to Kazakhstan was at the start of 2015 and to Russia in Dec. 2014.

The fall in value of currencies and the collapse in the car market had forced Honda to leave.

Weak local currencies have pushed up prices of imported cars.

A Honda spokesperson denied that the company was quitting the former Soviet Union altogether.

“We think the market has potential in the future so we’re not pulling out,” she told the FT. “We can respond flexibly since we don’t have a plant in Russia.”

Honda car sales in Kazakhstan fell by around 50% in 2015. In Russia, they shrank by 78%.

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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Construction starts at new Uzbek tyre plant

AUG. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek officials held a ceremony to mark the beginning of construction of a new tyre plant in the Angren special industrial zone, 90km outside of Tashkent. The total cost of the plant will be $230m. Uzkhimprom, the state-owned chemical industry holding, Uzavtoprom, the Uzbek car industry holding, and the two metallurgic complexes at Navoi and Almalyk will build the plant, the Trend News Agency reports.

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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

AvtoVAZ to increase prices in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian car manufacturer AvtoVAZ said it would increase prices in the Kazakh market by 3%. “The new pricing policy is due to changing macroeconomic factors and increased competition,” a company official told kapital.kz. Kazakhstan has devalued its currency and inflation is rising. This is the fourth price rise in 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Turkmenistan imposes restrictions on car imports

AUG. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – According to reports from Turkmenistan the government has banned the import of cars with engines below 1,300cc. Since 2010, Turkmenistan has banned the import of cars with engines above 3,500cc.

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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Uzbekistan plans to build new car plant

JULY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – General Motor’s subsidiary, GM Uzbekistan, and Uzavtosanoat said they will build a second car plant in Uzbekistan, according to Ruslan Batyrov, head of media at Uzavtosanoat. The two companies already own a car plant near Andijan, eastern Uzbekistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Georgian car imports fall

JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The value of car imports to Georgia slumped by 26%, in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2014, data from the statistics agency showed, more evidence that an economic slowdown across the region is hitting Georgian consumers. Overall, imports in H1 2015 were down 9% compared to H1 2014.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Kazakh market still buys Rolls Royce

JULY 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – More people in Kazakhstan have pre-ordered the new $294,000 Bentley car from Rolls Royce than in Russia, Bloomberg News quoted Peter Schwarzenbauer, a BMW director, as saying. BMW owns Rolls Royce. This is anecdotal evidence that the Kazakh luxury market is still strong.

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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Turkmenistan imports trucks

JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Only around 5,000 trucks with Turkish produce travel to Turkmenistan each year through the South Caucasus and the Caspian Sea because crossing Azerbaijan is too expensive, the head of the Turkish International Road Carriers Association, Fatih Sener, told local media. Around 50,000 trucks travel via Iran.

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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Uzbekistan-based factory suffers in economic downturn

JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – GM Uzbekistan, a joint venture between the Uzbek government and US carmaker GM, sold 10,357 cars in Russia in the first half of this year, media reported quoting the company.

This is 57% less than in 2014 and highlights the economic problems rebounding around Central Asia linked to the decline in Russia’s economy.

Russia is one of GM Uzbekistan’s biggest market, so for it to drop away so seriously is bad news for the company.

GM Uzbekistan is based near the city of Andijan in eastern Uzbekistan.

In 2010, GM Uzbekistan employed 5,000 people. If demand for its cars, and it mainly produces mid-range Chevrolet cars at this plant, falls away significantly then these jobs may be under threat.

The drop in car sales is symptomatic of a general decline in economic conditions around the Central Asia region.

As well as a drop in exports to Russia, remittance flows back to Central Asia from workers in Moscow and beyond have dropped across the region by around 40%. Currencies have also dropped in value by around a third.

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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Car imports to Azerbaijan slump in 2015

JUNE 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The number of cars imported into Azerbaijan dropped by around 50% in the first five months of the year, media reported quoting official statistics.

Between January and May, 13,912 passenger cars were imported into the country, down from 27,444 during the same period last year.

The slump in car imports into Azerbaijan is probably a result of a number of factors.

These include a general economic downturn in the region, linked to a recession in Russia and a drop in oil and gas prices. Russia’s economy drives the former Soviet region and oil and gas is the mainstay of Azerbaijan’s economy.

Also, earlier this year Azerbaijan devalued its manat currency by a third, making imports more expensive.

And in 2014, the Azerbaijani government passed a law which banned car imports not using the higher grade Euro-4 fuel type.

This meant that many older cars from Europe could no longer be imported into Azerbaijan.

The knock on effect of this slump in demand is hitting car prices in Azerbaijan too, economist Vugar Bayramov told the azernews.az website.

He said that as inflation has picked up in Azerbaijan, it has pushed up the price of a new cars but the value for older cars has fallen. “Our monitoring shows that the prices of old cars decreased by 7%,” he said.

Mr Bayramov also said that banks in Azerbaijan had also tightened their finance requirements for cars, requiring a downpayment for financing of 50%, up from 20% earlier.

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(News report from Issue No. 237, published on June 25 2015)