Carmakers in Russia are struggling with problems, sanctions have hit them – SME.sk

Thousands have laid off workers and food prices are rising sharply. Thousands of Russian car workers have been laid off and food prices are rising sharply. Western sanctions have hit the Russian cities of Kaluga and Togliatti hard, with foreign and domestic car manufacturers having their factories. And more sanctions are likely to come. Sanctions imposed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine have exacerbated the persistent shortage of components and halted production at two flagship car manufacturers in Kaluga – subsidiaries of Germany’s Volkswagen (VW) and Sweden’s Volkswagen. The third PSMA Rus plant, a joint venture between Stellantis and Mitsubishi and employs 2000 The article continues under a video ad “It is not clear what will happen. They do not give us any specific information,” said Pavel Terpugov, welder at the PSMA Rus plant. He added that he needed twice as much money to buy food as before the sanctions. Some analysts estimate that inflation in Russia could soar to 24% this year, while the economy may fall to the level of 2009. However, the difficulties of the Russians are far from those caused by the war to the Ukrainians. Reports of murders of civilians in the city of Bucha near Kiev and others have provoked international outrage this week. This prompted the European Union, the United States and other states to impose a new, fifth package of sanctions on Moscow. Volkswagen, which employs 4,200 people at the Russian factory, cut off production in early March due to the war. The Volvo Group, which manufactures trucks there and employs more than 600 people, has also suspended production. However, before the sanctions, sales of VW cars made in Russia fell from 2.8 million units after the factory opened in 2007 to 1.67 million last year, both for sanctions following the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and for blockades during the COVID-19 pandemic. .The city of Togliatti has been synonymous with the leading Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ and its most famous brand Lada for generations. But sanctions are also being imposed on the carmaker and its employees are worried about their future. “It’s a factory town. Everyone here works for either the factory or the police,” says Alexander Kalinin, a freight elevator operator in Avtovaz, where he has worked for 15 years. The factory was founded in the 1960s in Stavropol about 780 kilometers southeast. from Moscow, which was renamed Togliatti by Italian communist politician Palmir Togliatti. The plant survived the economic crisis after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and was eventually taken over by the French car group Renault. invasion of Ukraine, as sanctions make it more difficult to import components from abroad. Employees are on paid leave with two-thirds of their usual wages, but food and other commodity prices are rising. There were many problems with the employees, but nevertheless there was a clear positive trend, “said Andrei Yakovlev, head of the Institute of Industrial and Market Studies at Moscow University of Economics. “A big Russian car manufacturer has been born.” Now its future is very uncertain, as Renault is under strong pressure to consider leaving AvtoVAZ. If AvtoVAZ is unable to survive this crisis, its demise would mean the end of an industrial era and for many enthusiasts. end of the brand Lada.TASR informs about it on the basis of a report AFP.Vojna in Ukraine