Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

GM Uzbekistan, an Uzbek-American joint venture, plans to complete the second stage of the project on organizing the production of the Damas passenger cars in September 2014.

The completion of the second stage of the project will be implemented on the base of Khorezm Automobile Production Union LLC in September 2014, a representative of the Uzavtoprom JSC told Trend Agency.

The project on organizing the Damas car production is worth $55.5 million. It was planned to be implemented in two stages.

The first stage of the project completed in the first quarter of 2014 envisages the assembly production with the design capacity of 40,000 vehicles.

The company will be transferred into full production cycle after the completion of the second stage.

The project is financed by Uzavtoprom JSC's own funds combining the enterprises of the Uzbek automotive industry.

Uzbekistan plans to sell the produced cars in the domestic market and four neighboring countries.

Prior to transfer of production, Damas cars were produced at the factory in Asaka city.
The freed automobile production area of GM Uzbekistan, which is located in the Andijan region, will be used for the production of new models.

In 2010, Uzavtosanoat transferred the production of Captiva and Malibu cars on SDK technology from the Andijan region to some premises of the Tashkent Aviation Production Association named after V. P. Chkalov.

In 2013, the plant reduced production of Damas cars by 9.6 percent to 22,232 units.

GM Uzbekistan JV was established on the basis of an agreement signed in 2007 between Uzavtoprom and General Motors and produces eight models of cars. Two of them- Chevrolet Captiva and Malibu models are produced with the technology of semi knocked down assembly. The remaining models are produced in full-scale.

Currently, GM Uzbekistan produces nine models of passenger cars. In 2013, GM Uzbekistan increased production by 4.5 percent up to 246,031 units compared to 2012.