TOKYO, April 20. /TASS/. Japan-based manufacturer, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp, has suspended assembly of trucks in Russia, but is not planning to wind down production and fire staff, its headquarters said on Monday.
The German-owned company, one of the world's largest truck manufacturers, told TASS that the latest decision comes amid the declining demand and the ruble devaluation.
"The prospects of resuming production are not yet determined," a representative of the company headquartered in Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa, said. "However, we are not going to leave Russia and there will be no job cuts. We will be monitoring the development of the situation," he said.
Mitsubishi Fuso has been manufacturing Canter trucks in Naberezhnye Chelny, the second largest city in Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan, since 2009 on the basis of a joint venture of its major shareholder, Daimler AG and Russia’s KAMAZ. In 2011-2013, some 1,700 trucks were produced annually, and the figure fell by almost one half in 2014.
Another Japanese company, Mitsubishi Motors, is also planning to suspend production of new vehicles at the PSMA Rus plant in the Kaluga region for around eight days starting from late April.