Cherkasy Bus JSC which produces Ataman buses based on Japanese Isuzu units is planning to invest UAH 200 million in the project for creation of two buses exceeding the buses produced today, deputy Dmitry Kisilevsky said after his visit to Cherkasy.
“Due to localization, the owner of Cherkasy Bus, Alexander Dorosh, is bolder in his plans to invest. He is preparing two new larger buses for production. The volume of investments in this project is 200 million hryvnias,” he wrote in Facebook on Thursday, summarizing some results of the law on localization in machine-building, initiator of which he is.
According to him, during the period of the law (since June 2022), which in 2023 provides for mandatory availability of at least 15% of the Ukrainian component in public procurement (and +5% annually until it reaches 40%), the plant has produced 324 buses, won 60 tenders in public procurement – not only for buses, but also for other wheeled vehicles with localization.
“The largest of them is for the supply of 126 school buses for the Lviv region. The localization index in these buses is 60%. Today, two-thirds of the company’s production is an order from the public sector,” Kisilevsky stressed.
In this connection, he noted inappropriate, in his opinion, limitation of the maximum support, which industrial manufacturers can get from the state on the program 5-7-9, to the sum of 60 million hryvnias.
“For comparison, this ceiling is set at 1 billion UAH for retail chains. Such priorities, in my opinion, should be changed to the exact opposite. “Cherkassy bus” program 5-7-9 successfully took advantage of, but the need for investment funds is much more, “- emphasizes the people’s deputy.
Kisilevsky noted that “Cherkassy bus” was idle only a few days in February 2022 (immediately after the Russian invasion), and now 450 residents of Cherkassy work at the plant, another 50 specialists the company is ready to hire. The average salary is 15,000 hryvnias.
He stressed that in Ukraine today there are at least four major manufacturers of buses, jointly capable of covering the needs of the state in this form of transport.
“Buying Ukrainian public transport, state departments, companies and communities win three times. Firstly, they save on service, because the manufacturer is close by. Secondly, they get back more than 40% of their money spent in taxes. Thirdly (and most importantly) this way the State encourages investments and job creation in the country, not abroad”, summed up the MP.
Founded in 1994, “Cherkassy Bus” plant until now has been producing only small class buses, as well as other wheeled vehicles using Isuzu equipment.
According to the resource opendatabot, in 2022, the plant increased its net profit by almost 2.9 times to UAH 65.02 million, while its net income grew by 32.5% to UAH 842.29 million.
The Kiev-based “Investments for Development” LLC and Oleksandr Dorosh own 24.79% of the stock, Anna Suprun and Konstantin Vorushylin – 8.2498% each, another four natural persons (including the long-term director of the plant Vitalii Raabe) own 5.3999% of shares each.
The charter capital of Cherkassy Bus JSC is 162.96 mln hryvnia.
