Kamaz to post loss instead of projected profit in 2019

NABEREZHNYE CHELNY, republic of Tatarstan, Dec 6 (PRIME) -- Russian truck maker Kamaz will post a loss in 2019 instead of a projected profit, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), due to the impossibility to get an export subsidy, which only covers sales of finished cars, CEO Sergei Kogogin told reporters on Friday.

“I do not think we will to get a profit, we will have a loss. We have unclear subsidies terms that we did not expect. In particular, export support does not cover SKD (semi knock-downs). If an assembly kit consists of thousands of components, it is necessary to prove the Russian origin of all of them… It is difficult not for Kamaz alone,” he said.

Kogogin said that the loss will be significant, but its size will depend on the results of December operations.

The company’s turnover is projected at 192 billion rubles, as compared with 186.2 billion rubles in 2018, he said, adding that the figure could have topped 200 billion rubles unless production of trucks of the K4 series had fallen.

“Next year our turnover will rise, as we will launch the fifth (K5) generation. We are ready to start selling the debut thousand of the cars. We also plan to raise exports, because we have part of the contracts delayed to next year.”

Kogogin also said that Kamaz plans to raise exports to over 6,000 trucks annually from the current 5,000.

“We hope to exceed 6,000 next year. To Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, our long-standing clients, a 3-year contract with Turkmenistan, where deliveries have started. We also have some projects in Africa, but they are not very stable,” he said.

Kamaz has launched an assembly facility in Vietnam. It also needs an order for at least 500 cars to join the Russian industrial zone in Egypt.

Kogogin said that Kamaz plans to invest at least 10 billion rubles in 2020 as compared with 15 billion rubles in 2019.

“We totally invested over 50 (billion rubles), the overall investment program amounted to 87 billion (rubles), we plan at least 10 billion (rubles) for the next year, which is to be raised from bonds. We need to finished the current projects.”

Kamaz has asked the government to raise support of gas motor vehicles purchases.

“We hope that subsidies for gas motor (vehicles) will at least remain flat on the year (at 3.5 billion rubles). But we have seen no rise although there are necessary sums in the budget. This is a strong impact on our clients. I asked the government to help in some way as those who bought or wanted to buy the buses including municipalities suffer most of all.”

Kogogin also said that Kamaz plans to launch a new light commercial vehicle (LCV) under the Kompas brand in 2021–2022.

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