Ford Motor Company plans to increase the annual production capacity of its Russian assembly plant in the town of Vsevolzhsk in the Leningrad Region, Vedomosti business daily reported Monday citing Ford spokeswoman Yekaterina Kulinenko.
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Kulinenko reportedly said that the company plans to decide on boosting capacity in the near future. She did not say how much the company plans to increase its production capacity but said that this year the plant is expected to assemble 35,000 cars, the newspaper said, according to Prime-Tass.
However, in mid-May, Ford said in an official report that it plans to produce only 25,000 cars in 2005, which is flat on the year, Vedomosti said.
Meanwhile, an official with the administration of the Leningrad region told Vedomosti that by October the production capacity of the plant is to increase to 40,000 cars a year, the newspaper said.
A market source told Vedomosti that expanding capacity at the plant would not require any huge investment and large period of time, the newspaper said.
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By GlobalDataFord’s Russian subsidiary was officially launched in July 2002 and was allotted a quota of 31,500 cars for the Russian market between July 2004 and June 2005.
The company produces Focus cars at the Vsevolzhsk plant. Investments in the plant have so far totaled $US150 million.
In January-March Ford sold 6,477 Focus cars in Russia.
Valery Tarakanov, general director of marketing and public relations at Russia’s Rolf group, told Vedomosti that the auto market had been waiting for Ford to increase production in Russia for a long time, the newspaper reported.
He said that demand for the new Ford Focus II would be much higher than for the previous Focus model assembled in Russia due to the newer version’s lower retail price.
