Ukrainian vehicle manufacturers produced 1,829 vehicles in January-March of this year, which is 34% more than in the same period in 2020, according to a posting on the website of the Ukrautoprom association.
As reported, in January-February 2021, vehicle production exceeded the figure for the same period last year by 3%.
According to the preliminary data of the association, in the first quarter the production of passenger cars increased by 43%, to 1,690 units, production of buses decreased by 24%, to 133 units, and only six commercial vehicles were produced versus 12 a year earlier.
In March alone, car production increased 2.5 times compared with March 2020, to 722 units, including cars produced 2.7 times more – 665 units, which is also 48% more than the February indicator of the current year.
At the same time, the association recalled that in March last year, statistics in this segment were formed only by one plant – Eurocar, and the Zaporizhia Automobile Plant (ZAZ) resumed production of passenger cars only in September.
In the March statistics on commercial vehicles, as in the previous year, only two vehicles assembled at the Cherkasy Bus plant are announced, and AvtoKrAZ still does not disclose information on its production figures (since August 2016).
The production of buses in March grew by 37.5%, to 55 units.
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.
