The aforementioned growth wan mainly registered thanks to a serious increase in car production, which rose by over 100 percent in January, reaching 41,806 units, compared to 18,177 units in January 2008. Foreign car brands accounted for 46.9 percent of the overall volume (these reached a figure of 26,340 units). Domestic production totaled 15,466 units in January, compared to the microscopic 280 figure posted in the same month of 2008.
In addition to that, Russia’s tire production has tripled in January, as local media reports. Russian January truck tire production rose 10 times to 341,000 and the country’s agricultural vehicle tire output grew 6 times to 72,900 tires. The country’s total tire output reached 1.384 million, as the Russian news agency Prime-Tass reports, quoting a report by the Federal State Statistics Service.
The news comes in an extremely difficult period for the Russian automotive sector, as the country’s auto sales contracted by 50 percent in 2009, only managing to reach 1.36 million units. The sales followed the initial forecast, which had shown that the Russian automotive market will not even reach 1.5 million units in 2009. The massive decrease was registered by all segments of the market and it was felt by all the volume automakers in the country, except for the South Korean Kia brand. The contraction would have been even higher if the government had not implemented a subsidies program. The authorities have also prepared a financial support scheme for 2010, offering 1,125 euro for each new car.
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