Avtovaz planning large-scale expansion of export in 2024 - CEO

YEKATERINBURG, July 10 (Interfax) - AvtoVAZ expects to increase export shipments several times over in 2024, the company's president Maxim Sokolov said during a session at the Innoprom-2023 forum.

"We expect to increase export volumes by several times next year," Sokolov said.

In a conversation with journalists, he specified that the company is planning to increase exports primarily to "traditional partners in the CIS and the countries of the Eurasian Union."

"In fact, shipments to both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were difficult due to the discrepancy between the technical regulations that are in force there and the status of the products we supply. We plan to resolve these issues, although we believe that they should also make appropriate changes to their technical regulations to speed up our commercial and economic exchange," Sokolov said.

In addition, the company plans to expand exports to Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan and sees potential in the Persian Gulf countries, he said.

"We are open to new projects together with our partners in various countries in the Middle East. We are actively negotiating for the export of our cars, and perhaps for setting up assembly plants with the Gulf countries, since this really is a logical fast-growing region for the formation of strong and industrial, financial and logistical ties," he said.

"We see prospects for the development of relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Turkey. And speaking of the Persian Gulf, we are actively negotiating with the United Arab Emirates, with Oman, and with the Syrian Republic, where we plan to develop various options for cooperation," the head of AvtoVAZ said.

He added that there is great potential in relations with the countries of the African continent, in addition to Egypt, these include Algeria, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana and a number of other states. "Among countries in Southeast Asia, we see Vietnam as the most promising partner," Sokolov said.

The volume of car production at Avtovaz group enterprises in 2024 could reach 500-550,000 compared to 400,000 this year. This will depend specifically on the pace of export recovery, Sokolov said in June.