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OREANDA-NEWS. The Head of Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia Denis Manturov sees no trend for foreign automotive manufacturers to withdraw from the Russian market.

In March American concern General Motors, announced withdrawal of Opel from the Russian market and plans to lay up its plant in St. Petersburg by mid-2015. According to GM, its vehicles, which were produced in Russia, were not localized sufficiently, and serious investments in the localization development would be nonperforming in this market situation.   

“Now the situation remains the same as I have already told”, - Prime agency quotes Mr. Manturov. In March, after the decision of GM, the head of Ministry of Industry and Trade said, that there was no preconditions for withdrawal of foreign carmakers from Russia, but everything would depend on the market situation. 

In April new passenger car and LCV sales in Russia decreased by 41.5% to 132,500 vehicles. During four months the decrease came up to 37.7%,   Automobile Manufacturers Committee of Association of European Businesses (AEB) reported. However, the head of AEB Joerg Schreiber mentioned that the dynamics of the current crisis differs from one in 2009, due to rapid response of the government. AEB does not expect further deterioration of the market situation. Most probably the negative trend will be gradually improving in the nearest months.