NOV. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan imported 52,000 cars in Jan-Oct this year, a drop of 38.5% from the same period in 2013, media reported quoting the state statistics agency. The drop is likely attributable to a combination of weaker economics and new emissions regulations.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has placed an order for 1,500 trucks with Russian manufacturer Kamaz, Russian news agency ITAR-Tass reported. The deal, worth a reported $125m, is a major coup for Kamaz and also underlines other Turkmenistan’s drive to build new infrastructure.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
JULY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – South Korea’s Daewoo will invest $22m upgrading and expanding production at two Uzbek textile factories, media reported. South Korea has been looking to expand its business links with Uzbekistan which has also wanted to boost its important textile industry.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan delayed a ban on imports of cars lacking some safety features from the GM car plant in Uzbekistan, media reported, a boost for the Uzbek car-making sector. Earlier this year reports said that the Nexus and Matiz models would be banned from January. The ban will now not be imposed until July.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
May 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The joint-venture between US carmaker GM and the Uzbek government sold 14% less cars in Russia between January and April this year compared with the same period in 2013, media reported. Reports did not give a reason why sales had tailed off. Russia is one of the key markets for the car plant, based in Andijan, east Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
APRIL 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — New car sales in Kazakhstan increased to nearly 35,000 in the first three months of 2014, a 25% increase on the same period in 2013, an industry lobby group reported. Nearly 80% of the new car sales were imports, suggesting that a 20% devaluation of the tenge in February hasn’t dented Kazakh consumer confidence.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — From April 1, Azerbaijan started implementing Euro-4 standards to imported cars. Azerbaijan announced that it was going to make the switch earlier this year. Euro-4 is a higher grade petrol then previously used in Azerbaijan. The move will make car imports into Azerbaijan more expensive.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
FEB. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has banned the sale of Uzbekistan-made GM Daewoo cars, media reported, triggering a potential trade row between the two neighbours.
Officially, Kazakhstan said Customs Union rules stated that imported cars must have at least one front airbag, ABS braking, child safety seat attachment points, daytime running lights and an immobiliser.
Unofficially, the suspicion is that Kazakhstan may be using the Customs Union to protect its own car industry.
The Customs Union has been in existence since 2011. It is led by Russia and so far includes also Kazakhstan and Belarus, although Armenia and Kyrgyzstan plan to join later this year. Uzbekistan has no plans to join.
Its rules and regulations, though, are some-what murky but what we do know is that, by instinct, it is a protectionist organisation.
What is clear is that last year GM-Uzbekistan, which produces its cars at a factory in Andijan in eastern Uzbekistan sold around 23,000 of its cheaper car models in Kazakhstan and around three times that many to Russia.
GM took over the Daewoo factory in Uzbekistan in 2008.
Visitors to Shymkent, a city of 600,000 people in Kazakhstan on the border with Uzbekistan, will notice that many of the cars on the roads being driven there are Daewoo.
Both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have been talking up their car industries. Uzbekistan’s main car markets are Russia and Kazakhstan and the GM Daewoo factory is its biggest producer.
Losing Kazakhstan, and Russia, as an export market will be a major blow and have, potentially, far reaching implications.
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(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)
FEB. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s state-owned Uzavtoprom exported 90,800 cars in 2013, official media reported, up around 20% from 2012. Uzbekistan’s car manufacturing sector is increasingly important to the country. It mainly exports to Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Turkmenistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
JAN. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan increased its car production in 2013 by 4.8% to 251,342, media quoted the state’s statistical department as saying. The biggest increase was in truck production. Uzbekistan has boosted its car manufacturing base considerably over the past five years or so.
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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)