Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

GM Uzbekistan produced 220,667 cars in 2018, Podrobno.uz reports citing company's data.

For the first time in the company’s history, the monthly car production record was broken at the end of 2018. This happened in December 2018 - 34,117 units, which means more than 1,000 vehicles were produced per day. Moreover, the cost of each model was reduced by 10-16 percent, and the cost of imports by $73 million.

Umidjan Salimov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Uzavtosanoat for development and marketing, said that previously, they spent more than 50 hours on the production of one car, while the world figures are about 24 hours. He added that now, at a plant in Asaka, cars are assembled for no more than 24 hours and this happened thanks to the introduction of new production mechanisms.

”We are currently working on the Just In Time, that is, all suppliers send us components on the conveyor right on time. Previously, we could not even dream of it,” said Deputy Chairman.

It is important that the Uzbek car industry managed to accomplish almost impossible in six months of last year - to increase the production of cars by 50,000.

Salimov stressed that to increase the production volume by 50,000 cars in six months is a very difficult task. But, he added, the automobile industry of the republic, thanks to the resources that were available, was able to do it.

"Now we intend to engage in many areas of the automobile industry that have not even been discussed until that time. For us it is now very important to be at the level of world leaders," noted Salimov.

In addition, the Asaka Automobile Plant carried out a complete modernization of the process equipment in 2018. It updated its structure, introduced the latest GM systems and tools for production management, and the company's employees underwent appropriate training at GM factories in South Korea, China, Thailand, and India.

GM Uzbekistan, formerly known as UzDaewooAuto, was created in 1996 on a parity basis by Uzbekistan and South Korean Daewoo Motors.

In 2005, Uzbekistan acquired Daewoo's shares in UzDaewooAuto. Two years later Uzavtoprom (Uzbek Association of Automotive Industry Enterprises) and the U.S.-based General Motors signed an agreement to establish the GM Uzbekistan with an authorized capital of $266.7 million.

GM had previously held a 25 percent stake in the joint venture. Previously, it became known that Uzavtosanoat bought the 15 percent of shares.

The production of cars by General Motors Uzbekistan Ltd decreased by 7.4 percent in 2017 and amounted to more than 82,000, whereas in 2016, the production decreased by 52.5 percent, and in 2015 – by 24.5 percent.

Currently, at three production sites «GM Uzbekistan» are producing 10 car models under the Chevrolet and Ravon brands, in particular, Matiz, Spark (R2), Nexia (R3), Cobalt models (R4), Lacetti (Gentra) are produced at the main production in the Asaka city, models Captiva, Malibu in the branch in Tashkent, models Damas, Labo in the branch in the Pitnaka city.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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