Kamaz and Daimler set up 2 joint ventures in Russia

JSC Kamaz and Daimler AG yesterday in Stuttgart, Germany, signed agreements on setting up two joint ventures, Fuso Kamaz Trucks Rus and Mercedes Benz Trucks Vostok.

The enterprises are set up on a fifty-fifty basis, the parties making equal contributions and owning equal shares in the stock capital, said the auto giant’s press service. The two facilities’s production base will be located in Naberezhnye Chelny. The two projects are run within strategic partnership between Daimler AG, Kamaz, state corporation Rostekhnologii and the Troika Dialog investment company, launched in December 2008. As a result of the agreements signed then, Daimler AG came to own a 10-percent stake in JSC Kamaz.

The partners invested 4.1 million euros each in the Fuso Kamaz Trucks Rus joint venture, to manufacture and sell lightweight trucks. The company will begin operations in the first quarter of 2010. Localisation of auto components production within truck assembly in Russia will be increasing. The joint ventures will be headquartered in Kazan. The Fuso Kamaz Trucks Rus general director and sales and marketing heads will be selected from the Kamaz top managers. The financial director and production director positions have been given to Fuso representatives.

The contribution of each of the parties in the Mercedes Benz Trucks Vostok joint venture, to manufacture and sell the Mercedes Benz Actors and Axor heavyweight trucks, is 5.9 million euros. Production of the trucks will first be performed through SKD at Kamaz production grounds. Based on an agreement with the Russian Antimonopoly Committee, it should begin in the second quarter of 2010. Sales are expected to begin in January 2010. The new company’s general director will be Boris Billich, previously in charge of Mercedes Benz truck sales in Russia. The headquarters of the Mercedes Benz truck, bus and Setra sales operations will be located in Moscow.

With a view to an expected rise in the world and national economies, the parties marked highly the role played by the newly set up ventures on Russia’s auto market.