Renault Resumes Car Production in Russia
The canceling of Russia on the downswing?
Source: Deutsche Welle
French carmaker Renault resumed operations at its production facilities in Moscow on Monday, a move that comes as other international companies flee the Russian market over the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
A company spokesperson confirmed the reopening to news agency Reuters. Renault had suspended some operations at its assembly plants in late February due to component shortages caused by logistical bottlenecks, according to reports from local units. [Probably a cover story to not overly offend the Russians while still complying with the Cancel Russia drive.]
The company did not specify at the time whether the supply chain issues were due to the war in Ukraine. But sweeping Western sanctions against Russia have further damaged supply chains at a time when automakers are already struggling to get hold of the semiconductor chips used in many parts of car production. Recent sanctions include a ban on semiconductor exports to Russia.
Renault controls key Russian carmaker
Renault did not indicate how long the plant, which produces the Renault Duster, Kaptur and Arkana models, would stay open.
“The situation with components supply is unstable and changing, we prefer not to make any predictions,” a spokesperson for Renault Moscow told Reuters.
Renault reopened its plant at a time when many international companies were shuttering their business in Russia due to sanctions and public pressure linked to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Over 400 companies, including Apple, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s, have reduced or halted operations in Russia since the war began, according to researchers at Yale University in the US tracking the trend. Foreign carmakers like Germany’s Volkswagen and Japan’s Toyota have also suspended production and exports.
Renault has chosen to remain active in Russia for now while complying with international sanctions, sources close to the matter told Reuters. The decision had the backing of the French state, Renault’s main shareholder, the sources said.
Since 2016, Renault has had a controlling two-thirds stake in Russian carmaker Avtovaz, making it more exposed than its rivals to the Russian market. Over 36,000 people in Russia work for Renault. The country accounts for 8% of its core earnings, according to Citibank.
Sanctions threaten supply chains
The French firm entered Russia in 2007, at a time when the car market there was booming. Avtovaz began as a state-owned manufacturer under the Soviet Union. Its Zhiguli and Lada brands have strong associations with the country’s communist regime.
Lada, which produces primarily for Russia and its former Soviet neighbors, accounted for 21% of the domestic car market in 2021. Renault’s controlling stake highlights the difficulties faced by the West as countries there try to isolate Russia economically.
While operations at Renault’s Moscow plant have resumed, Avtovaz said Monday that it is halting some production at its plants in the Russian cities of Togliatti and Izhevsk due to a shortage of electronic parts.
Many Western companies that continue to operate in Russia are under increasing pressure to suspend their business activities there. In a speech streamed to protesters in the Swiss capital of Bern on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized Swiss consumer goods company Nestlé for continuing to operate in Russia. Nestlé countered that it had “significantly scaled back” its business there except for “essential products.”
The Kremlin has threatened to seize and nationalize the assets of foreign-owned companies that do not resume business in Russia.
adasfdas
The real problem is, it is a Renault (internationalist corporation) owned factory.
Is there a Russian-owned automobile production facility in Putin’s anti-NWO Mother Russia ?
Are the Russians not able to produce automobiles on their own ? They need the help of armpit-smelling buttplug internationalists from France ? Why are Russians not allowed to develope, build, engineer their own cars ? why do they have to ride in internationalist vehicles (filled with junk that adds $10-20,000 to the price ?
If everything is the same in Russia as in the NATO new world, why bother with this, or any other, war ?
Why would Grand-Protector Putin allow Nestle to infest Russia ? Why not he protect Pan-Slavia from these internationalist monsters ? what, Russians are not able to bring in coffee from Arabia and make morning brew from it ? they need an internationalist (monopoly) corporation to do it for them ?
Other than plagiarizing Stalin’s August 1941 speech to the nations of the Soviet Union, this Cheka progenee Vladimir has learned nothing from Zhugashwili (or from Ulyanov).
Maybe you need to ask such a question of all the Russian oligarchs, who have stripped the Russian economy of funds and exported said funds into foreign banks to live selfish life of abundance, when instead investment of those funds into factories or production facilities in Russia would have benefited them AND their country, AND they’d still own them to this day, instead of loosing them to western banks and Governments.
IMHO, it is THEY who are the traitors to the Russian peoples. At least in my country, the mining mega rich keep the majority of their riches in country, and try to reinvest said funds in beneficial means to the country. To be fair though, the International Corporations who hold majority shares in said mining companies, do not do this. They take their profits off shore and leave massive holes in the ground behind them.
>>> “all the Russian oligarchs”
Then what is the use of having a grand-protector Vladimir ? If 20 years later Russia is still the property of jew robber-barons then what was the purpose of regime-change in 1999 ? (oh, yes, to prevent the communist from effecting a genuine change).
Is this war against Ukraine merely a war between robber barons ? to replace jew robber barons in Ukraine with different jew robber barons ?
I’ve been driving a Lada for over ten years – ya it’s a farmed out production but I can replace the front suspension for 150 bucks. Lada wasn’t a bad econ. car – the roads all suck.
Renault closes down – Russia nationalizes it – just like they did McDonalds in Crimea. – No Problem – another Russian company just takes over and runs it similiar to how McDonalds dictated the running of it. Close to the same menu – bathrooms are clean and everyone is happy. Different name.