MOSCOW: Moscow is looking for ways to transfer the manufacturing of spare auto parts for its major car producers from Turkey to Serbia, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said.
“Until now, these car components were manufactured in Turkey. We believe that the Serbian [auto] industry is capable of producing them,” Rogozin was quoted as saying by the Sputnik news agency. In his initial comments about the brands that would see a shift in the supplier of spare auto products, the minister included only the leading truck manufacturer Kamaz and top car maker AvtoVAZ.
Business relations between Russia and Turkey have soured since the latter downed a Russian warplane over a slight airspace violation above Turkey’s Syrian border in late November. In the midst of a wave of economic sanctions imposed on Turkey by Russia, however, auto producers in St. Petersburg declared concerns in mid-December of last year about the fact that some of their major imports came from Turkish auto parts manufacturers.
According to Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) data, Turkish producers exported some $800 million worth of spare automotive parts to Russia in 2014.
St. Petersburg Vice Mayor Sergei Movchan has reportedly requested that Russia’s Federal Customs Service allow Turkish-made auto parts into Russia before auto production comes to a standstill in the city. Assembling some 400,000 passenger cars a year, producers in St. Petersburg are responsible for between 22 and 24 percent of domestic production and employ around 8,000 people in the city.
The top Russian car brand Lada has also shared concerns with customs authorities about failing to receive supplies in the month of December, according to local media.
Already hit by internal economic woes, Russian car sales tumbled by 43 percent year-on-year in November on the back of a weakening ruble and a corresponding drop in the purchasing power of Russian citizens.
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