Today the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, the acting Governor of Nizhny Novgorod region, Gleb Nikitin, the Managing Director for Customer Services at JSC Russian Export Centre, Nikita Gusakov, and the management of GAZ Group and Russian Machines held a meeting at the Gorky Automobile Factory of the GAZ Group. The participants of the meeting discussed the development of the automotive industry and agricultural engineering, as well as the implementation of investment projects using the advanced domestic component base.

Gleb Nikitin, Acting Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Alexander Morozov, Managing Director for Customer Services, Nikita Gusakov, the board member of the JSC Russian Export Centre, and Sergey Gaisin, the CEO of the State Research Centre of the Russian Federation FSUE NAMI took part in the meeting on development in the industry, which took place at the Gorky Automobile Factory. Russian Machines (RM) and the GAZ Group were represented by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Republic of Moldova, Siegfried Wolf, the CEO of RM, Manfred Aibek, and President of the GAZ Group, Vadim Sorokin.

The participants of the meeting inspected the key GAZ production facilities, including sites for the production of components, where localisation and import substitution projects are being 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, a strategy for localising components in Russia, in order to create the best strategy for supporting highly localised operations. And in this sense, the experience of GAZ Group seems the most interesting. We studied several examples, in particular, visited several joint ventures with world producers of auto components, where we saw the localisation of different amounts of produced components. GAZ Group has mastered the production of components for the localised operations in Russia: casting, stamping, and machining of parts for such consumers as Daimler, Ford, Renault-Nissan, KAMAZ. This leads to more sensible use of investments, higher economic efficiency of production, and competitiveness of cars. The contribution of GAZ Group to the development of the auto component industry is rated as excellent. We will recommend the experience of the company to all producers who assemble cars in our country.

Gleb Nikitin, Acting Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region:

– We will continue the work that I started at my previous position, namely, the development of a strategic vision for the development of the GAZ Group and the automotive industry as a whole. I hope that the new capacities of GAZ Group, especially the production of auto components, will be localised primarily in our region. In addition, we discussed the possibility of creating an industrial park in the free zone of the Gorky Automobile Factory. First of all, it will be focused on producers of auto components, but given the support that we can provide, I think that such a park will be attractive for other producers.

Vadim Sorokin, President of the GAZ Group:

– GAZ implements a number of key projects for the localisation of components, which are intended not only for the assembly of its own products, but also for the delivery to conveyors of a wide range of automotive enterprises – Russian and foreign OEMs operating in Russia. Localisation makes it possible to reduce the cost of car assembly units. On the other hand, our auto component business has the opportunity to expand access to the latest technologies and additional revenues as a supplier for the entire Russian market. GAZ has all the capabilities and potential: highly qualified personnel, logistics infrastructure, advanced production technologies – in order to become the competence centre for the production of a wide range of key components for the entire automotive industry in Russia.

Gorky Automobile Factory is a historical centre of one of the largest Russian auto-component clusters and one of the key producers of world-class quality components. GAZ delivers components to the GAZ Group and other production facilities of the automobile industry, produces bridges, axles and suspensions, wheel disks, exhaust system elements, cast elements, forging products, and tooling. Among GAZ's customers in the component segment are hundreds of external customers, both automotive producers and organisations in other industries (aircraft industry, railway companies, utilities, etc.).

The main advantage of the Nizhny Novgorod car-building cluster is its diversification: Nizhny Novgorod facilities produce commercial and passenger cars (own products of the Gorky Automobile Factory and contract assembly projects jointly with Volkswagen and Daimler), buses (Pavlovsky Bus Factory), road construction equipment (Zavolzhsky Crawler Tractor Factory), and automotive components (GAZ, Sotex, T-Rad, Nizhny Novgorod Engines, etc.). Each of the facilities in Nizhny Novgorod can work with the car industry company of any focus, and over 200 companies are in cooperation with GAZ in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

The auto component business of GAZ Group actively uses the best production practices of the world automotive industry. In 2012, GAZ started the joint production of exhaust gas systems with the European company Bosal. In 2014, a joint venture for the production of fasteners together with the Swedish company Bulten was launched. In 2015, the production of stamped body parts for Mercedes-Benz Sprinter cars was established. In 2016, GAZ became a supplier of components for the engine production facility Ford Sollers, deliveries of cast components for engines YaMZ-530 of the Yaroslavl Motor Plant under the import substitution programme. Bulten Rus was nominated for the supply of products for the industrial projects of the Renault-Nissan alliance and AVTOVAZ. In 2017, GAZ was nominated by WABCO Europe as a supplier of wedge clutch mechanism for brake systems.