Kamaz says cuts 2017 export forecast 9.7% to 5,600 vehicles

MOSCOW, Sep 5 (PRIME) -- Russia’s truck maker Kamaz has decreased its export forecast for 2017 by 9.7% to 5,600 vehciles, but has maintained its overall 2017 sales forecast at 38,000-39,000 units, CEO Sergei Kogogin told reporters on Tuesday.

“We are to decrease our (export) volumes due to unfavorable conditions in summer… I think we be will unable to reach (previously planned 6,200 units), there will be 5,600 (units) due to losses in the first half-year,” he said.

The executive added that the market situation has changed, but is still far from perfect, because the company sells its products in the U.S. dollar zone and buys components in the euro zone, which poses a permanent exchange rate problem.

Kogogin said that his company intends to upgrade its profit projection, without disclosing figures, and that it plans to sell around 3,600-3,800 cars in September with a rising share of domestic sales.

He said that Kamaz has recently presented a new K5 truck, a project worth 400 million euro. He also said that it may be forced to open a new facility in Vietnam to get preferences to export car assembly kits to the country under a free trade zone agreement, but hopes to avoid it.

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