CJSC Severstal Avto Isuzu (SAI), a company jointly established by Isuzu Motors Limited (Isuzu), OJSC Severstal Avto (SSA), and Sojitz Corporation (Sojitz), held the opening ceremony of a new plant at Elabuga on April 6, 2008. The ceremony was attended by Mr. Susumu Hosoi, President of Isuzu, Mr. Vadim Shvetsov, President of SSA, and Mr. Kazunori Teraoka, Senior Managing Executive Officer of Sojitz.

SAI had been preparing to relocate its truck production (semi knock-down) facility at OJSC Ulyanovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (UZA), an affiliate of SSA, to this new plant in Elabuga. The opening ceremony was to mark the start of production at the Elabuga plant. It is expected that a full-scale production will begin in August, this year.

The purpose of the relocation of the production site is to meet a future expansion in production and sales in the Russian market, as the sale of Isuzu vehicles, since its start in July last year, has been steadily increasing and is expected to see a substantial growth in the future.

In his congratulatory address of the opening ceremony, Susumu Hosoi, President of Isuzu, expressed his determinations to make every possible effort to give full support for further strengthening collaborative relations with SSA and Sojitz, its business partners, successfully operating the New Plant, and improving product quality.

The New Plant is initially expected to build 25,000 units of vehicles on an annual basis. With an increasing demand expected for trucks in Russia, the annual production and sales volume is projected to increase further in future.

Source: Isuzu Motors Limited

Isuzu will assemble vehicles in Russia with Severstal-Avto beginning in August as the country’s demand for commercial vehicles rises.

The venture will have an annual capacity of 25,000 units, Isuzu said recently in a statement. Japanese trading company Sojitz Corp. is also a partner in the venture, it said.

Isuzu plans to more than triple truck sales in Russia to 8,000 vehicles this year, the company said. Economic growth in developing markets is boosting commercial vehicle sales as truck demand in Japan is forecast to decline, making Isuzu more reliant on overseas markets.

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Isuzu said it was looking at building trucks in Saudi Arabia, which would make it the world’s first auto maker to produce vehicles in Saudi Arabia.

Demand for trucks has been rising in Saudi Arabia due to rising construction, where the economy has benefited from a fivefold surge in oil prices over the last six years. Isuzu will build the midsize to large trucks from knock-down kits, where the parts of chassis, engines and other large components are exported from Japan, the Nikkei business daily reported. Production could start early next year, and initial annual output is slated at about 2,000 to 3,000 units, the paper said.

Isuzu exported 33,900 pick-up trucks and trucks to Saudi Arabia in 2006, up 46 percent from a year earlier. Some 9,900 of those were trucks.

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Suzuki plans to build a new motorcycle factory in China via a joint venture it will set up with the Grand River Group of China. The new factory would produce 2 million units a year in 2014. China is world’s largest motorcycle market, accounting for 49 percent of the 44.15 million motorcycles sold worldwide in 2006.

Suzuki produced and sold 1 million motorcycles in China in 2006, about 7 percent of Chinese market for motorcycles. China has more than 100 motorcycle makers.