The cost of UAZ vehicles has risen by 32% since February 2022, a figure disclosed by Adil Shirinov, head of the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, during a meeting with the governor of the Ulyanovsk region, Alexei Russkikh, following reporting from Ulpressa. ru. The announcement underscores a broad push within UAZ to secure more predictable supply chains and to rebalance procurement amid global disruption.
Shirinov explained that UAZ had to rapidly replace several European Union suppliers with domestic producers and partners from friendly countries, including Russia, China, Turkey, and Belarus. The transition aimed to reduce exposure to cross-border risks and to streamline logistics in a challenging market environment. While the full roster of replaced parts will not be published, industry insiders acknowledge that critical components affected include protection systems, vacuum boosters, engine control units, and hydraulic units.
The one-third rise in prime costs is attributed to three primary factors: logistics costs, which jumped by about 60%; the cost of the components themselves, up roughly 32.3%; and electricity tariffs, increasing by around 7%. The combined effect is a more expensive production baseline that influences pricing decisions and overall competitiveness in the domestic market.
On the strategic front, UAZ plans to continue shifting to Russian component suppliers. The company describes this pivot as enhancing reliability and cutting logistics costs, a move that resonates with broader industrial policy goals in the region and the country at large. The adjustment also aligns with a desire to reduce dependence on distant suppliers and to foster closer, more communicative supplier relationships.
Sales performance in the first half of 2022 reflected the tough market conditions, with UAZ domestic sales slipping by 26% to 9,720 units. In the latter half of the year, leadership expressed optimism about lifting production volumes to help offset the decline observed earlier in the year. This outlook is tied to the capacity to scale domestic assembly and to maintain steady supply of locally sourced components, even as global supply chains continue to face volatility.
In a broader corporate context, it is notable that at the end of June, entrepreneur Vadim Shvetsov exited his stake in the Sollers holding, transferring 76.4% ownership to a group of top executives within the company, including Adil Shirinov, Zoya Kaike, Viktor Khvesen, and Nikolai Sobolev. Sollers remains the parent figure for UAZ and ZMZ, and it co-owns the Sollers-Ford and Mazda-Sollers plants, which signals a strategic realignment aimed at strengthening governance and accelerating the integration of production capabilities across the group.
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