Azernews.Az

By Rasana Gasimova

Azerbaijan is taking major steps to develop its automobile manufacturing market to increase local production and decrease import dependence.

Production in Azerbaijan’s automotive industry has seen massive increase in the first eight months of 2019.

“Car production [in January-August 2019] increased by 4.8 times compared to the same period in 2018. This growth is due to the fact that the production of cars in Azerbaijan resumed in April 2018,” the State Statistical Committee has told local media.

The production of passenger cars in Azerbaijan amounted to 1,496 units in January-August 2019, the committee said.

According to the statistics, 89 cars were produced in January 2019, 87 cars in February, 107 cars in March, 153 cars in April, 490 cars in May, 186 cars in June, 192 cars in July, 192 cars in August.

As of September 1, there are 227 cars in stock.

Azerbaijan also produced 863 tractors of various purposes in January-August of this year (a 11.7 percent decline). As of September 1, there are 364 tractors in stock.

There are currently three automobile manufacturing plants in Azerbaijan located in Neftchala, Ganja and Nakhchivan. The plant in Ganja also produces agricultural machinery. Currently, cars are only manufactured at the Neftchala plant.

In the medium term, car production in Azerbaijan should reach 5,000 units per year.

Khazar plant in Neftchala, which has been operating since March, 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 Belarus and Russian companies. Ganja Automobile Plant is the largest assembly plant of Belarus 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 necessary spare parts for cars to the plant, so they may be assembled in Azerbaijan under the direct supervision of Chinese automotive specialists.

According to the Market Analysis Azerbaijan 2019, production in the automotive industry of Azerbaijan will reach $20 million this year and $70 million by 2022.

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