China's Zhengzhou Yutong wants to create bus assembly factory in Kuzbass
KEMEREVO. June 21 (Interfax) - China's Zhengzhou Yutong Group Co., Ltd has approached the Kemerovo Region's government with a proposal to create a bus assembly factory in the region for its Yutong buses, the Kuzbass Chamber of Commerce and Industry's press office said.
The Kemerovo region in West Siberia is home to Russia's coal-rich Kuznetsk Basin or Kuzbass.
The press office said an agreement has already been reached in which LLC Neotrans (Kemerevo Region) and the Chinese company would jointly develop a draft program and conduct a feasibility study on the construction of assembly production in the region. The Chinese side is also responsible for the development of a finance scheme and proposals for the implementation of the investment project.
In two months a continuation of the discussion of the project is planned taking into account specific calculations.
In 2010 in the village of Drachenino in the Leninsk-Kuznetsky area of the Kemerovo Region, the Kuzbass Auto factory was built, which is part of LLC MarrTEK, and whose production capacity allows for the assembly of around 500 buses and 1,500 Hyundai trucks per year.
Amid disruptions in the supply of assembly kits in 2013 due to strikes in Korea, as well as the increased cost of car assembly kits, Kuzbass Auto went under external management for a period of 18 months until November 13, 2016. However, according to data on the Unified Federal Register of Bankruptcy Information's website, Kuzbass Auto's creditors at a meeting on May 20 decided to end the process of external management ahead of schedule and file for receivership for a period of six months.
According to the SPARK Interfax database, in the Kemerovo Region there are a number of companies under the name of Neotrans, three of which specialize in overland passenger transportation - LLC Neotrans-Dauria, LLC Neotrans-Krasnoyarsk and Neotrans-Kuznetsk. LLC Neotrans Management Company, which specializes in the lease of vehicles and equipment as well the management of financial-industrial groups, has stakes in all of these and the manager for all four firms is Sergei Verzhbitsky.
According to an entry from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities dated June 21, Neotrans Management Company is owned in equal stakes by four private individuals, including Alexander Rybalko, who earlier headed LLC Insurance Company Siberian Insurance Home, part of the Siberian Business Union Holding.
Zhengzhou Yutong Group's core business is the production of buses, as well as construction machinery. The group also operates in the real estate sector. In May, the company announced plans to create bus assembly production of its Yutong buses worth 1 billion rubles in Russia's Primorye Territory.