Nissan says it has added a second production shift at its manufacturing plant in St Petersburg in anther sign that the Russian auto industry is firmly in recovery.
The increase in production follows the upturn in the Russian market in 2017, and rising demand for Nissan’s leading crossover and SUV models made in Russia: Qashqai, X-Trail and Murano.
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And following a four-month recruitment and training programme, 457 new jobs have been added to the workforce for the new two-shift pattern.
Igor Boytsov, Nissan vice president for Manufacturing in Russia, said: “The addition of a second shift at our St Petersburg plant reflects our positive outlook for the market in Russia.
“Today we welcome more than 450 new people to the team and look forward to further success for Nissan models like Qashqai, X-Trail and Murano – engineered and built in Russia, specifically for Russian customers.”
The recruitment process saw more than 10,000 people apply for one of the new positions, which included manufacturing staff, team leaders and supervisors, and also included promotions for 52 employees in St Petersburg.
Nissan sales in Russia this year have followed the positive trend in the overall market, increasing in the first 9 months of 2017 by 2% compared to last year. This is reflected by Nissan’s production in Russia, with 52,525 vehicles made in the first nine months of 2017, 32,037 of which were made in St Petersburg plant.
Total production in Nissan St Petersburg Plant this year is expected to increase by nearly a quarter, compared to last year’s total of 36,464 vehicles.
In 2016, a total of 79,066 Nissan vehicles were manufactured in Russia, for the domestic market and exports to the Republic of Kazakstan, the Republic of Belarus, Lebanon (from June 2016, Datsun only) and Azerbaijan (from November 2016).
