OREANDA-NEWS. February 12, 2015. Kaluga plant "Volvo East" will stop temporarily the production of Volvo and Renault Trucks from February 11th and it will reduce the staff by 30% "in connection with the unfavorable market conditions and prolonged decline in demand for commercial vehicles."

The plant employed 1,000 people, office staff and workers of the production lines will be reduced, which will receive compensation in accordance with the Labor Code. According to the newspaper "Vedomosti", during downtime trucks will be delivered temporarily to Russia from European companies Volvo Group in Sweden, Belgium and France. When it can be resumed the production at the Kaluga plant, it is not reported. According to sources, the company will return to work as soon as it will be formed a sufficient backlog of orders. 

In 2014, sales of trucks in Russia decreased by 20.5% to 88,040 units, according to the agency "AUTOSTAT". Among the participants of the Top-10, sales of Volvo trucks fell most of all - by 44.1% to 3,511 units. In 2014, the production at the "Volvo East" halved until 1874 trucks, according to "ASM-Holding". The production of MAN trucks in Russia increased 4.5 times to 508 units the last year, but sales, including imports, fell by 31.5% to 4541 units.

Meanwhile, KAMAZ (Russian sales in 2014 decreased by 17.2% to 26,371 units, according to the agency "AUTOSTAT") will move only to part-time work week. JV KAMAZ and Daimler - "Mercedes-Benz Trucks Vostok" (-32.2%, 2,929 units) and St. Petersburg plant Scania (-12,1%, 5666 units) do not plan to stop. According to participants of the industry, automakers have common problems - the continuing decline of the market and the devaluation of the ruble. But foreign manufacturers are not so burdened with social obligations, such as city-forming plants "Ural", KAMAZ, and they can afford to harsh measures, said an employee of one of the plants. Moreover, it is small productions - their products can be replaced by imports, and if necessary - quickly launch again.