Zaporizhia Automobile Plant (ZAZ), which is part of UkrAVTO Corporation, being under reorganization, could in 2019 launch assembling MAZ trucks within joint production with Minsk Automobile Plant (Belarus).
UkrAVTO Press Secretary Dmytro Skliarenko told Interfax-Ukraine the parties are currently negotiating. If agreed, the first stage of the project will include assembling imported vehicle sets.
“At the same time, the possibility of localizing this production should be noted – the Belarusian side does not object to the use of components of Ukrainian production in the assembly. For the Ukrainian partners of ZAZ this means receiving additional distribution channels for the products and, as a result, developing domestic production related to the automotive industry sectors,” Skliarenko said.
He explained that taking into account the current Ukrainian realities, when amidst a serious reduction of the market of new vehicles the state actually opened the doors to European “second hand” and the only auto company in Ukraine with a full production cycle was forced to stop production of passenger cars and mothball technological lines, ZAZ is seeking the ways to replace the lost volumes by mastering the producing other types of vehicles.
