Kazakhstan’s economic and industrial expansion has now extended into the automobile industry, and domestically manufactured cars have become a reality. The domestic share of the automobile industry is steadily increasing and the growth of market indexes in the past year show a positive trend compared to 2011.
Qncepto Consulting Group analysed sales in August 2012. They amounted to 8,481 cars, a 110.92 percent increase in sales compared to August 2011. A total of 10,555 more cars were produced in Kazakhstan during the same eight months of last year, which is 2.55 times more than in the same period of 2011. Nearly two thirds of the growth in August comes from sales of vehicles of Russian and Kazakh production.
Today, companies are tallying up the preliminary results of 2012, which confirm that the automobile industry has not been resting on its oars. Production volume of JSC ASIA AUTO in 2012 reached 50,039 million tenge (16,565 cars). The range of their products covers Lada 21214 and 210994; Škoda (Octavia A4 and Yeti; Škoda Superb B6); Chevrolet (Lacetti J200, Epica V250, Captiva C100, Tahoe, Cruze, Aveo), Cadillac (Escalade, STS, CTC); KIA (Cerato, Sorento, Mohave, Soul, Cadenza, Optima, Sportage) and Hummer H2.
According to President of ASIA AUTO Yerzhan Mandiyev, within the Customs Union they can offer customers particularly attractive prices because of the increased volume of sales.
Back in June 2010 at a joint meeting, JSC AgromashHolding (Kostanay diesel plant), Ssang Yong/Societech Corp. Ltd. (Korea) and Allur Auto (Russia) signed an agreement on the organisation of the assembly and production of Ssang Yong cars on the basis of JSC AgromashHolding. In 2012, the plant produced 2,581 cars. LLP SaryarkaAvtoProm (Kostanay) is implementing a project to manufacture UAZ SUVs. Overall, the volume of sales in 2012 amounted to 403 million tenge (110 vehicles).
In early 2007, the Semipalatinsk Car Plant LLP and Daewoo Bus Global Corporation established a joint venture, Daewoo Bus Kazakhstan, for the production of urban and suburban-service buses. In 2007, the plant produced 36 buses; in 2012 it produced 107.
The Russian-Kazakh joint enterprise KAMAZ-Engineering manufactures vehicles and special machinery for various industries. In 2012, the volume of its salable production amounted to 8,962 million tenge, and 978 units of machinery and equipment were sold.
Hyundai’s large-component assembly of trucks and buses project was launched in early 2011 in the Kolhozshy village, Almaty region. At the end of last year, 646 cars rolled off the production line at Hyundai Commercial Vehicles Manufacturing, while sales volumes reached 238 million tenge. SemAZ LLP started assembling WAF-brand cars last year. In 2012, sales amounted to 149 million tenge (74 vehicles).
The domestic car industry is young and just starting to gain strength and competitiveness. It is encouraging that the Customs Union now opens up the multi-million dollar markets of Russia and Belarus to local manufacturers.
