Production of Mazda cars to start in Russia's Primorsky territory in 2012.

VLADIVOSTOK, June 24 (Itar-Tass) -- The production of Mazda Atenza
(Mazda-6) cars will be launched in Russia's Far Eastern Primorsky
territory in 2012, the press service of the territorial administration
told Itar-Tass on Friday.
So far it is not yet decided where the production facility will be
located, although among possible venues there are the city of Vladivostok
and the settlement of Slavyanka in the Primorsky territory's southern
areas, the two sites having adequate infrastructure and highly qualified
workforce.
On Thursday, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development signed an
agreement on industrial car assembly with Italy's Fiat and Japan's Mazda.
The agreement with Mazda envisages the production of from 25,000 to
50,000 vehicles a year. Investments worth 80 million U.S. dollars are
envisaged. At the initial stage, car components will be delivered from
Japan, while later on thirty percent of components will be produced inside
Russia. The production of engines in Russia is not considered at the
moment.
According to the Primorsky territory governor, Sergei Darkin, the
project will encourage the territory's socio-economic development.
One car assembly facilities has already been launched in the Primorsky
territory. The Sollers- Far East car manufacturer opened a plant on
December 29, 2009 to make SSangyong off-roadsters. In 2010, it made about
13,000 SSangyong Rexton, Kyron, Actyon, and Actyon Sport models. In 2011,
the Sollers-Far East plans to put out 25,000 cars.
Moreover, Russia's Sollers and Japan's Mitsui announced plans to set
up a joint venture. It is planned to locate a Soller-Bussan plant at the
Sollers-Far East facility so that it could make use of the latter's
infrastructure. The would-be plant will manufacture Toyota Land cruiser
Prado cars, which enjoy wide popularity in Russia. The first such car will
roll off the production line in the spring of 2012.
Another car manufacturing alliance, Renault-Nissan, is also looking
for a venue for its would-be production facility.
"I think that this projects will help us within the next five years to
create an automotive cluster in the Primorsky territory that will
manufacture up to 200,000 vehicles a year," Darkin said.