KAMAZ achieves localization for necessary components in regard to domestic deliveries - CEO

MOSCOW. Oct 20 (Interfax) - Russia's truck manufacturer Kamaz has sorted out the localization of necessary component parts to carry out shipments onto the domestic market, Kamaz CEO Sergei Kogogin said during a plenary session of the Made in Russia forum.

"The company has resolved the problems of domestic sales, localization, and search for new supply chains. From the export perspective, our company is needed, and there is a number of countries where fleets of Kamaz vehicles are in place. To stop cooperation and switch to any new models of automobiles from scratch in half a year is to incur huge economic losses," Kogogin said.

Traditionally, Kamaz sends 85%-90% of its product to the domestic market. Kogogin told reporters this summer that despite expected revenue losses due to plummeting sales for the most marginal modern models (K5), the company would keep its target to sell 39,000 trucks in Russia in 2022. The company estimated exports at around 4,000-5,000 vehicles, according to his estimate as of June.

After several foreign partners of Kamaz decided to discontinue their operations in Russia, the company was able to replace the main components for automobile manufacture. "Our partners were forced - I emphasize this - to leave the Russian market, to denounce partnerships. For example, we had to localize spare parts for a number of aggregates, totally, 232 items. If in ordinary life I told myself that it would have to be done in two months, it wouldn't work out. In today's conditions, the company localized all the parts in two months and continues to act this way," Kogogin said.