Car output dramatically drop in Kazakhstan
By Kamila Aliyeva
Car output has dropped dramatically in Kazakhstan over the last year.
Car plants in Kazakhstan produced 8,397 cars in January-December 2016 compared to 12,453 cars produced in the same period of 2015, the State Statistics Committee reported.
Car manufacturing reached 240 in December 2016, compared to 452 cars in November 2016 and 1,648 cars in December 2015.
Kazakhstan produced 362 minibuses in 2016 compared to 295 minibuses produced in 2015.
Truck production in Kazakhstan increased from 1,544 trucks in 2015 to 1,892 trucks in 2016.
Earlier Kazakhstan’s Auto Business Association said that official car dealers’ sales sharply dropped in the country in 2016 (from 97,469 sold new cars in 2015 to 46,712 cars in 2016). Car sales in Kazakhstan have showed a descending tendency since 2014.
The country operates three large car plants - AZIA AVTO, SaryarkaAvtoProm and Agromashholding, which manufacture Kia, Chevrolet, Skoda, Hyundai, SsangYong, Peugeot branded vehicles.
Automobile production as mechanical engineering sub-sector has a relatively short history of existence in the Central Asian country. The country had a small car production in 2000. For instance, 2,628 cars were produced in 2003, while 19,186 units were manufactured in 2012. "AZIA AVTO" company that passed the initial registration in December 2002 was the first enterprise to mark the establishment of the automotive industry in Kazakhstan.
In recent years, automotive industry was one of the priority industries in Kazakhstan. The experts considered that Kazakhstan's integration into the Customs Union was the reason for that. The rules and norms of the Customs Union helped to increase domestic production by 4 times, as the Russian market has opened. The car exports to Russia increased, while import of cars significantly dropped.
An analysis into the dynamics of the automotive industry volume growth demonstrates that no industry production of Kazakhstan showed such impressive dynamics in a period of time from 2004 till 2015. However, 2016 has shown a different trend in car production industry.
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