OREANDA-NEWS. Sollers-Bussan LLC, a joint venture (“JV”) between Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (“Mitsui”, head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, President and CEO: Masami Iijima) and Russian major car manufacturer OJSC Sollers (head office: Moscow, Russia), started production of Toyota Land Cruiser “Prado” today. Sollers-Bussan LLC was established in August, 2010 as a fifty-fifty joint venture and had been engaged in preparation for the launch of the assembling project of Toyota brand automobiles under the technical assistance of Toyota Motor Corporation.

The Russian automobile market is now in a recovery trend after the global financial crisis and the sales volume of vehicles in 2012 was 2,935 thousand units, which is the 2nd largest in Europe after Germany, and the market growth is expected to continue. Meanwhile, the Russian government positions the automotive industry as one of the important industries and has an intention to develop the domestic automobile industry through alliances with foreign companies.

The vehicles produced in the Far East of Russia will be supplied to customers in the Russian market efficiently and promptly by mainly utilizing the Siberian Railway. Mitsui aims to contribute to the development of the Russian automobile industry and local economy through this joint project and to expand our business activities in this country further.