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Sales of new passenger cars, LCVs in Russia went down in February

Sales of Russia’s largest car maker Avtovaz dropped by 19% in February 2016

© Andrey Kholmov/TASS

MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. Sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles in Russia decreased by 13,4% in February 2016 year-on-year or by 17 232 units, and amounted to 111 145 cars, the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee (AEB AMC) reported Thursday.

In January-February period a total of 193,072 cars were sold in Russia, down 20.8% year-on-year.

"The pace of year-on-year decline is slowing down visibly, with minus 13% to the smallest value in 14 months. This is an expected and welcome development, much of it being attributable to the low volume base of last year," Chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee Joerg Schreiber was quoted as saying.

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Lada was the bestselling brand in February in Russia despite a 19% decrease in sales to 19,000 cars, followed by Kia (a 9% decrease to 11,500 units), Hyundai (a 21% decrease to 10,500 units), Renault (a 3% decrease to 8,800 units), Toyota (an 11% increase to 8,000 units) and Nissan (a 23% decrease to 7,300 units), AEB said.

Hyundai Solaris was the bestselling model in Russia last month (+1,6% to 8,000 cars), followed by Kia Rio (+18% to 7,000 cars), Lada Granta (-40% to 6,300 cars), Renault Duster (+42% to 4,200 units) and Volkswagen Polo (+24% to 3,200 units).

Sales of Russia’s largest car maker Avtovaz dropped by 19% in February 2016 to 19,000 units, the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee (AEB AMC) reported Thursday.

Sales went down by 16% in January-February period to 34,600 units

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Avtovaz reported net loss for 2015 under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) at 73.851 bln rubles ($932.5 mln) and negative money flow. In its recent financial report Avtovaz said it had intensified anti-crisis actions, including optimization of prices based on market situation and competition, development of its product portfolio, increase of fleet sales, upgrade of spare parts and its aftersales policy, optimization of the company's footprint. The anti-crisis plan also featured reduction of administration expenses, working capital and indirect expenses. Also, the company reported it could fail to service its debt and continue operating business without shareholders’ support. Chief Executive Officer of Rostec (one of Avtovaz’ shareholders) Sergey Chemezov said Wednesday he blamed the company’s current head Bo Andersson for the loss as he "failed to use Russian suppliers and took an easy way by making contracts with suppliers of his partners, Renault and Nissan."

Renault-Nissan alliance holds a controlling stake in Avtovaz while Russia’s state hi-tech corporation Rostec has a blocking stake.

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