24 May 2022 12:56

Avtovaz should resume manufacturing cars in early June - CEO

SAMARA. May 24 (Interfax) - Avtovaz CEO Maxim Sokolov, at a meeting on Tuesday with the Togliatti auto plant's workers, announced the likely resumption of car manufacturing in early June, the regional government's press service has told Interfax.

"Literally at the beginning of next month, we should resume production, start manufacturing models, and gradually resume it in full," the press service quoted Sokolov as saying.

Sokolov has noted retaining the plant's workers and developing import substitution as being among the main tasks.

"Together with the team, I have set even more ambitious goals. After all, we were and remain the flagship of the Russian automotive industry; and we will do our best for this. This of course, among other matters, means increasing import substitution, perhaps new suppliers and supply chains; and first of all, naturally, in the Samara Region, and the Volga Federal District, though, perhaps, not only. These are the new strategic directions. I am certain that we can do everything and accomplish any task together," Sokolov said.

"Owing to the ongoing crisis in supplying electronic components, and in order to prevent a significant reduction in employees' earnings," Avtovaz management moved the corporate vacation previously planned for July 25-August 14 to April 4-April 25, 2022, instead. During the vacation, the company planned to accumulate the necessary stock of components in order to ensure more stable operations of the enterprises in Togliatti and Izhevsk, in particular, in May.

However, following the planned downtime in manufacturing because of the corporate vacation and May holidays that lasted from April 30 to May 11, the plant was forced to announce downtime from May 11 to 13, then from May 16 to 20, and then from May 23 to 27.

Overall, Avtovaz has been in temporary suspension of production since the middle of last year owing to the shortage in semiconductors.