Azernews.Az

By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade

Car manufacture industry in Azerbaijan has been experiencing positive changes. Since the beginning of 2019, the industry, in particular, production of cars, trailers and semi-trailers, has recorded the highest indicators of activity within the non-oil industry.

Presently, the Neftchala Industrial District in Azerbaijan is preparing for the production of Peugeot 207 cars, Azermash told Trend.

The source informed that the production of the new model is expected in the coming months.

“The cost of Peugeot 207 cars with an automatic transmission will be 17,500 manats ($10,294). At the same time, preparations are being made for export deliveries of Khazar SD model cars produced in the Neftchala Industrial District," the company stated.

Azermash also added that there is a plan to export to Russia and a corresponding package of documents is being collected and processed. Currently, the parties are negotiating the details of export.

The source also noted that Peugeot 407 cars, assembled in the Neftchala Industrial District in the first days of this year, went on sale in the domestic market. Currently, Azermash produces only one Peugeot model.

Khazar car plant, which has been operating since March 2018, produced over 1,600 cars and there is a plan to produce 3,000 cars in 2019.

The country’s Ganja Automobile Plant is manufacturing trucks of Belarusian and Russian companies. Ganja Automobile Plant is the largest assembly plant of Belarusian tractors outside the Eurasian Economic Union.

In addition, another plant that opened in Nakhchivan in 2010 assembles eight models of Lifan passenger cars designed by China’s Lifan Group, which provides all the necessary spare parts for cars to the plant, so they may be assembled in Azerbaijan under the direct supervision of Chinese automotive specialists.

As for overall statistics, in January this year, 89 cars were produced, February - 87, March - 107, April - 153, May - 490, June – 186 cars. As of July 1, there were 205 cars in the warehouses.

As for production of tractors, 747 tractors for various purposes were manufactured in Azerbaijan (decrease of 11 percent). As of July 1, there were 264 units of tractors in the warehouses of the country.

In 2018, approximately 1,000 cars were sold, while about 500 cars were sold in the first two months of 2019. If last year 40 percent accounted for purchases by government agencies and 60 percent - by the population, now this ratio has changed. This year, only 15 percent account for government agencies, while 85 percent account for the share of the population.

So, comparing the first halves of 2018 and 2019, production of cars increased by 8.5 times.

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Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1

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