OREANDA-NEWS. March 27, 2015. The investment program of "GAZ Group" in 2015 will be 4 billion Rubles, which is less by 20% than the previously announced volume, said the company president, Vadim Sorokin.

"The Board of Directors has approved the investment at four billion rubles”, - said Mr.Sorokin. Last year, the company reported on the approval of investments at the level of five billion rubles. Thus, the Group's investments in the current year will be reduced by 20%, says the agency "Prime".

"Given the serious decline in the market and prohibitive cost of attracting of credit resources, "GAZ Group" has revised the costs for some investment projects for 2015. We have moved some of the costs for 2016, but all the product projects, which are waiting by the market and which determine the competitiveness of the company in the future, will be carried out necessarily this year”, - noted in the company. This is, first of all, the organization of production of all-metal wagon "Gazelle Next”, the launch of line of trucks of a new generation "Ural Next”, a new bus "Vector", localization of YaMZ-530 engine and other priority projects, says the company.

Meanwhile, Mr.Sorokin predicts that the market of light commercial vehicles (LCV) in Russia in 2015 could be reduced by 40-47%, which corresponds to 68-70 thousand vehicles. "The fall in 2015 – is from 40 to 47%, with a gradual access to the level of 125 thousand units by 2020”, - said the President of "GAZ Group". He predicted that sales of LCV in 2016 could reach about 70 thousand cars. In the next two years the market will grow, by adding 10 thousand cars, and by 2019 it will reach 105,000 units, according to Mr.Sorokin.

"There are no prerequisites for a quick recovery of LCV market. According to the optimized forecast, the market will reach volumes of 2012 not earlier than in 2020”, - noted in "GAZ Group”.