The good momentum of Chinese auto exports to Russia has suffered a critical reversal this week.

Aftator, the largest assembly partner of Chinese car manufacturers in Russia, announced that it will stop assembling Chinese cars. Since July 1, the Russian government has implemented a revised system for importing automobiles. It has increased the number of imported automobile testing programs from 11 to 55, which will cause most Chinese companies to adapt in the short term.

Russian assembly plant fully shut down Chinese cars

On June 30th, Russia's Av Tout Company completely stopped assembling Chinese cars. This China’s largest assembly partner in Russia first stopped assembling Chinese self-owned brand cars and recently stopped assembling a light truck business in China.

Aftator stated that it was because of Russia's implementation of Euro III emission standards. This standard will be implemented from January 1 this year. At the Manzhouli port, there have been nearly 100 vehicles that have failed to meet the Euro III standard in the near future. In the first quarter of this year, 1316 vehicles were exported to Russia from the Manzhouli port, a year-on-year decrease of 57%. The trade volume was 21.34 million US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 43%.

However, industry analysts analyzed that Avtator stopped assembling Chinese cars in order to ease the relationship with related departments and strive for their own interests. Because, before the Federation of Russian Automobile Manufacturers asked "to cancel the zero tariff tariff on the assembly of the Assembly of Russia's Kaliningrad Aftator company to enjoy the incentive to stop unfair competition." In 2008, Avtator reduced its assembly quota, and thus paid more attention to the production of higher-margin BMWs, Puma and other luxury cars.

It is estimated that after the stoppage of the assembly of Chinese automobiles by Aftatoll, which enjoys tariff preferences for Russian cars, the local automobile price competitiveness will be affected to a greater extent.

The second wave of Chinese auto exports to Russia is the new Russian import certification system that began on Tuesday. The new certification system has eliminated the simplification of vehicle quality inspections that are not produced by member states of the Geneva Accord. China and India have become the most affected countries. Previously, only 11 tests were required for Chinese auto products to be exported to Russia. However, 55 inspections are now required. Most companies will not be able to meet this requirement.

Since the beginning of this year, due to Russia's implementation of the Euro III emission standards and the decline in the amount of assembly, Chinese auto sales in Russia have apparently declined. According to the statistics of the Automotive Manufacturers Commission of the European Trade Association of Russia, from January to May of 2008, although the sales of foreign brand cars in the Russian market surged by 48% to 855,472 units, the overall sales of Chinese automobiles declined sharply, with a total of 18,353 units sold. In 2007, 3% fell to 2%. In 2007, the sales volume of Chinese branded cars in Russia reached 50,000, an increase of 150% year-on-year.

At present, the threshold for vehicle export certification has been raised, and the assembly halt will further crack down on sales of Chinese cars in Russia. Chinese automakers' overseas exports are currently carried out mainly in the form of complete vehicles and KD assembly. Chery's total vehicle exports and KD parts exports account for about 50% each, and Changan Automobile's current total vehicle exports ratio is approximately 70% to 80%. Exports account for about 20%.

response

China Automobile Association will enter Russia for investigation

It is estimated that Russia’s foreign car market share will increase by 60% in 2008. Exporting Russia to Chinese car enterprises is undoubtedly a great opportunity, and it will also be a “mirror” for the export of Chinese automotive products. The reporter was informed that in order to gain a deeper understanding of the Russian automobile market and provide Chinese companies and governments with a good solution to export difficulties, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers is launching the "China's automobile into Russian strategy research" project. Currently, it has achieved some results through in-depth Russian market research. .

According to the analysis, Russia has established a strategic concept for the development of automobiles. Its strategic objectives include meeting the needs of the domestic market, ensuring the safety of the national automobile industry, and expanding the export of automobiles. Therefore, when Russia considers that Chinese cars do not have much actual investment and there are not many technologies that really belong to them, they will not generate any additional benefits that will drive the development of the Russian automobile industry. At the same time, they also pose a threat to the Russian auto industry. It will adopt a policy of unwelcome or disapproval. In July last year, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Energy issued a decision to suspend the approval of any production project for assembling Chinese cars in Russia.

Therefore, the current increase in the Chinese car's entry into the Russian market is not due to policy promotion, but rather to the promotion of the market itself. Chinese cars are cheap, cost-effective, stylish, and are favored by many low- and middle-income consumers. They have attracted the interest of local car dealers, but whether these advantages can become long-term energy to increase market share remains to be tested by the market. .

The China Automobile Association’s research also believes that if China’s auto products are currently encountering problems in entering the Russian market, if they cannot solve the problem, it may cause Chinese auto companies to be forced to withdraw and lose Russia’s important target market forever.

The more constructive opinion in the industry is that in the face of Russia’s continuous improvement in the threshold of automotive quality certification, the root cause of the problem lies in the Chinese auto companies themselves. Chinese companies wanting to enter Russia are not only asking what the other party should do and asking how the market should be transformed, but they must improve their competitiveness by improving their own technology, services, and parts supply levels. It is understood that because European and American, Japanese and Korean commercial vehicles have already reached Russia's requirements in terms of technology and emission standards, their products are relatively unobstructed when they are exported to Russia.
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