KAMAZ is to build its first EU-based assembly plant!

The largest Russian truck maker KAMAZ plans to open a new assembly plant for heavy commercial vehicles in Lithuania (it is expected to produce up to 2,000 trucks per year). The Lithuanian prime minister Andrius Kubilius shared the news with the Lithuanian radio after his meeting with the manufacturer's management. According to experts, it will be the first EU-based KAMAZ enterprise turning out products for the European market.

KAMAZ is counting on truck export growth in the foreseeable future

According to «The Strategic Development Program of KAMAZ OJSC until 2020», the truck maker expects the company's sales share outside the RF to grow from 15-20% up to 30% by the year 2020. And the European KAMAZ assembly plant is to play an important part in securing the success of these plans. The Lithuanian prime minister is convinced that such plants are quick and easy to build, so it shouldn't take long before the new KAMAZ trucks «assembled in Europe» are available.

New vehicles to meet new environmental standards

In order to satisfy its European ambitions, KAMAZ will most likely have to design a new range of models, so that its trucks could meet the more stringent environmental standards of the European market. «It would be pointless to try and bring the old models in line with Euro V», admitted Sergey Kogogin, Director General of OJSC KAMAZ. It should be mentioned that all new European trucks have to meet Euro V standards, whereas the Russian government had once again postponed the transition from Euro III to Euro IV (for now, till 2013).

KAMAZ's international expansion

The future KAMAZ plant in Lithuania is to become its first EU-based enterprise. However, the truck maker has already opened several assembly plants outside of Russia. At present, the new KAMAZ trucks are assembled in Vietnam, India, Iran, Kazakhstan and Pakistan. And the European assembly plant will undoubtedly open up new vistas for the leading Russian truck maker.