oday the RF Ministry of industry and trade and Acting Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region Gleb Nikitin met with Russian Machines and GAZ Group top management at the meeting held at the site of GAZ Group, a company of Basic Element, one of the largest diversified industrial groups in Russia. The participants discussed the development of the automotive industry and agricultural machine-building, as well as the implementation of investment projects using the modern national component base.
The meeting on the issues of the industry development at the site of the Gorky automobile plant was attended by Gleb Nikitin, Acting Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Alexander Morozov, Deputy Minister of industry and trade of the Russian Federation, and Sergey Gaisin, NAMI CEO. Russian machines (RM) and GAZ Group were represented by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of RM Siegfried Wolf, CEO of RM Manfred Eibeck and GAZ Group President Vadim Sorokin.
The participants of the meeting visited the key production facilities of GAZ, including the component production area where localization projects and import substitution projects are implemented for the entire automotive industry in Russia.
Alexander Morozov, Deputy Minister of industry and trade of the Russian Federation:
The Ministry of industry is studying examples, technology, localization strategy of components in Russia, to create the most appropriate support mechanism for deeply localized businesses. And in this regard the experience of GAZ Group seems to us to be the most interesting. We looked at the practical examples, in particular, we visited several joint venture companies with the worldwide manufacturers of automotive components where we saw the localization of components with different volumes. GAZ Group mastered the production of components for localized production in Russia: in casting, stamping, machining for consumers such as Daimler, Ford, Renault-Nissan, KAMAZ. This results in a more economical use of investment, higher economic efficiency of production capacities and competitiveness of the vehicles. I assess the contribution GAZ Group is making in the development of the automotive component industry as excellent. We will recommend to all manufacturers that produce vehicles in this country to use the experience the Company has gained.
Gleb Nikitin, Acting Governor of Nizhny Novgorod region:
– We will continue the work I started in the previous position, namely the elaboration of a strategic vision of the development of GAZ Group and the automotive industry as a whole. I hope that the new capacities of GAZ Group, especially the production of automotive components, will be placed mainly in our region. In addition, we discussed the possibility of creating free space at the facilities of the Gorky automobile plant to establish the industrial park. First of all, it will focus on producers of automotive components, but given the support that we are able to provide, I think, this park will be attractive for other manufacturers.
Vadim Sorokin, GAZ Group President:
– GAZ implements a number of key projects in localization of components which are intended not only for our own products, but also for a wide range of automotive enterprises – Russian and foreign OEM working in Russia. The import substitution gives the opportunity to reduce the cost of automotive components. On the other hand, our automotive component business gets the opportunity to expand access to advanced technologies and additional income as a supplier to the entire Russian market. GAZ has all possibilities and potential – highly qualified personnel, logistic infrastructure, modern production technologies – in order to become a center of competence for the production of a wide range of key components for the entire automotive industry in Russia.
The Gorky automobile plant has historically been a center of one of the largest component clusters in Russia and one of the key productions of components of world-class quality. GAZ supplies the components to GAZ Group plants and other enterprises of the automotive industry, producing axles and suspensions, wheels, exhaust system elements, iron castings, forging products and tooling. Among GAZ Group customers in the component segment are hundreds of external customers: both automakers and companies in other industries (aviation, railroads, utilities, etc.).
The main advantage of the Nizhny Novgorod automotive cluster is its diversity: Nizhny Novgorod enterprises produce commercial and passenger vehicles (GAZ own products and contract manufacturing projects with Volkswagen and Daimler), buses (Pavlovsky Autobus Plant), road-building machinery (Zavolzhsky crawler vehicle plant), automotive components (GAZ, Sotex, T-Rad, Nizhny Novgorod motors, etc.). Each of the companies of Nizhny Novgorod cluster can work with any automotive enterprise with any kind of specialization, more than 200 companies in the Nizhny Novgorod region cooperate with GAZ.
The autocomponent business of GAZ Group actively uses the best practices of the global automobile industry. In 2012, GAZ Group and Bosal, Europe, launched the production of exhaust systems, in 2014 a joint venture with the Swedish company Bulten began producing fasteners, in 2015 the body parts for Mercedes-Benz Sprinter started to be stamped in-house. In 2016, GAZ became a supplier of components for the engine-making factory of Ford Sollers, started deliveries of component castings for YAMZ-530 engines of Yaroslavl Motor plant under the import substitution program, Bulten Rus was nominated for the supply products for industrial projects of the Alliance Renault-Nissan and Avtovaz, in 2017 GAZ was nominated by WABCO Europe to supply the housings of the V-shaped brake release mechanism.
