Kazakh automakers explore Azerbaijani market

/By Azernews/

By Fatma Babayeva

Kazakhstan’s auto holding Bipek Avto - Asia Avto Group is exploring the possibility of entering the market in Azerbaijan, the holding told the media.

The delegation from the holding held talks with the Azerbaijani counterparts on this issue during their recent visit.

Bipek Avto - Asia Avto is studying development prospects in Azerbaijan’s auto market and having discussions on joint plans.

The holding group considers the Azerbaijani market as one of the most promising markets in the former-Soviet area despite the fact that the economic development in the country experienced some slowdown due to declining activities in oil and gas market.

The company stressed that its interest in Azerbaijani market has strategic nature.

The number of cars imported to Azerbaijan exceeded 100,000 during 2012-2013, the holding stated by assessing the prospects for the automobile market in the country.

Bipek Avto - Group is the largest holding in the automobile market of Kazakhstan.

The group includes Kazakhstan’s car assembly plant Asia Avto, distributor and dealer companies engaged in the sale and service provision for Lada, Skoda, Chevrolet, KIA, UAZ and Renault cars.

Earlier, the Association of Kazakhstan Auto Business announced that Kazakhstan decreased the volume of manufacturing cars and trucks during 2016.

The association indicated decrease in demand as the main reason for this decline. The number of manufactured cars in Kazakhstan reduced by 92.2 percent to 428 cars during the first quarter of 2016 as compared to the same period of 2015.

Meanwhile, the number of manufactured trucks In Kazakhstan fell by 14.2 percent to 247 trucks during the same period.

In total, Kazakhstan manufactured 12,450 cars and 1,660 trucks in 2015. Official auto dealers in the country experienced 59 percent decrease (6,991 cars) in sales for the first two months of 2016 compared to the same period of 2015.

In general, the activities in Azerbaijan auto market decelerated as well due to the decreasing purchasing power of the population. At the same time, the country is keen to expand the domestic production and encourages interior purchases within the country.

Car imports began to fall since April 2014 after Azerbaijan moved to the Euro-4 ecological standard that prohibits the import of old cars in an attempt to prevent air pollution.

According to the Euro-4 regulations, cars imported from the EU should be manufactured not prior to 2005, from the U.S. 2004, from China and Japan in 2011, from Korea 2006 and from Turkey 2009.