Sales of cars produced by Russian producer Lada are experiencing an accelerating downturn, reports suggest, and its boss has demanded more support. It comes as S&P Global data suggested that the country’s manufacturing sector as a whole suffered its steepest decline in nearly three years in March. The president of AvtoVAZ, Maxim Sokolov, told reporters that sales of Lada vehicles on the domestic market in April will amount to a maximum of approximately 30,000 units.
This will represent a decrease of around a third when compared to the year before, the Russian news agency Interfax reports. The year-on-year decrease in Lada sales “accelerated” at the end of Q1 this year, as, in March, the firm sold 28,699 units on the domestic market – a 33% hit year on year. Sales for the quarter amounted to 76,217 units – a decline of 16.8%. Mr Sokolov said: “Last year, in April, sales were around 45,000 cars, and in March of last year, somewhere around 42,000.
“This year, we are talking about the fact that, God willing, we will reach the 30,000 car mark in April.
“We see how dynamically demand is falling. For our cars, by about a third. On the market as a whole, by almost 50%, including AvtoVAZ.
“If the market is ‘cleared’ of AvtoVAZ, the decline will be even deeper – under 60% or more.
“But it is not about percentages. The fact is that this is already creating certain difficulties in the work of the domestic auto industry.”
The director argued that government support measures for demand needed to expand, and said that this should include resuming subsidised discounts on car purchases for families on credit.
The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for Russian manufacturing fell to 48.2 in March.
This was down from 50.2 in February, and the hit was its second month of weak performance after a 53.1 recorded in January, The Moscow Times reports.
S&P Global’s report said: “Muted client demand sparked a further reduction in input buying during March.”
It added that “the decline in purchasing activity was the sharpest since August 2022.”
Companies reported difficulty replenishing their stocks, and, even though supply chain pressures eased to an extent, delays linked to logistics and rail transport continued to impact delivery times, intellinews reports.