ASSEMBLY OF BMW CARS IN RUSSIA WILL BE DISCONTINUED

The Kaliningrad Avtotor plant, which is engaged in the assembly of German cars of the BMW brand, announced the suspension of production of cars from mid-June to early July. The company lacks component parts. Thus, the company runs the risk of repeating the negative experience of the Volkswagen and Skoda factories, which have previously stopped production due to the disruption of the component parts supply.

According to the CEO of Avtotor, Ruslan Sadykov, the resumption of the assembly of cars by early July will allow to resume the work of production facilities in normal mode by mid-July. Supply disruptions, as he noted, were caused by disruption in supply chains, caused by the pandemic in Europe and the United States. The spring shutdown of the enterprises manufacturing imported components led to the formation of a temporary downtime. And although the foreign partners have already resumed work, the supply of equipment was ultimately disrupted.

Previously, Sadykov have already reported that the assembly of BMW cars is not working at full capacity due to the epidemic situation, and that only 70% of the available resources are involved.

It is known that in addition to Bavarian cars, the company also produces Kia and Hyundai cars. Disruptions in supply have already forced the company management to suspend the production of South Korean brands. Between 30 March and 13 April, the production at the plant was completely stopped. Now, according to the sources, there are no problems with accessories for other automotive brands, but now it is the turn of BMW. The experts predict that the volume of the cars production this year will decrease by 40%.

The analysts note that the sales of BMW cars in Russia in the first quarter of 2020 showed good results.

Almost 11 thousand cars were sold, and the sales increased by 12%. However, the pandemic of the new coronavirus negatively impacted the entire automotive industry. In the recent months, the contraction on the market has been catastrophic. In April, the market “collapsed” by almost 73%, and in May by 52%. Regional dealers who quarantined in April began to gradually return to work in May, and the Moscow market actually begins to work only in June.