Because of this, suppliers are massively refusing to cooperate with the Russian auto industry, AvtoVAZ head Maxim Sokolov said at parliamentary hearings in the Federation Council. Moreover, both outgoing and incoming payments from unfriendly and friendly countries are blocked, he said. This is a consequence of targeted US sanctions imposed in September against the Togliatti automaker.
New US sanctions resulted in “repeated disruption of logistics, financial chains and much, much more,” Sokolov said. But the company withstood a “serious, not a blank shot”, without reducing the production speed and maintaining the order of release of different versions of the models.
At the same time, the head of AvtoVAZ assessed the current sanctions impact as limited compared to last year. In 2022, AvtoVAZ “came to a standstill across all production lines and sites,” and now it has only suspended the pace of Lada Vesta assembly during the second shift and canceled working Saturdays and Sundays.
The sanctions also forced AvtoVAZ management to adjust production plans. It was stated that the company would assemble 400 thousand cars in a year, but the actual volume may be about 10 percent less. “The passage of some supply chains will be difficult and, of course, this figure will be adjusted in such conditions,” Sokolov said.
Over the past 10 months of 2023, AvtoVAZ produced 293 thousand cars. Taking into account the changed plan, it remains to assemble about 67 thousand cars in November and December – that is, approximately 33 thousand per month, which is slightly more than the average in January-October.
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