Kyiv Post - The Renault group, which is looking to bring its Moscow-area plant OJSC Avtoframos to annual peak production of 160,000 vehicles this quarter, plans to start shipping Russian-built vehicles to Ukraine this month, the group said in a statement.
First to be shipped will be Renault Logan and Sandero models.
"The production of models for Ukraine at Renault's Russian plant will help to increase sales volume and make maximum use of production capacity, as well as the capacity of component-supply companies," the statement says.
There were 3,123 Logans and 838 Sanderos made in Romania sold in Ukraine last year. Previously, Logans and Sanderos were delivered to Ukraine under the brandname Dacia, which belongs to the Renault group.
Renault began shipping Russian-built product to Kazakhstan in January of last year and to Belarus last October.
Avtoframos increased automobile output 70% in 2010 to 87,265 vehicles versus the 51,394 it turned out the year before.
The plant laid on a third work-shift last November, and by the end of the year was producing 575 automobiles per day.
The enterprise began the SKD (semi-knocked-down) assembly of Fluence and Megane models at the beginning of this year, and will be turning out the Duster by year-end.
Renault is aiming at capturing 8% of the Russian auto market by 2015, and together with Nissan and Russia's largest automaker OJSC AvtoVAZ - 40%.
OJSC Avtoframos was set up in 1998 by Renault and the Moscow city administration. It builds the Logan, Sandero, Sandero Stepway, Fluence, and Megane. It employs 3,700 people.
