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Nissan Begins Construction of New Assembly Plant in St. Petersburg, Russia
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today announced the start of construction of its
new US$200 million vehicle assembly plant in St. Petersburg, which is due to
open in early 2009.
Carlos Tavares, executive vice president of corporate strategy, product
planning & design at Nissan, called the new plant "the next significant step
towards global expansion under the Nissan Value-Up plan" during a press
conference to mark the occasion.
The ceremony was attended by Russian authorities including First
Vice-Prime-Minister Sergey Ivanov and Governor of St. Petersburg Valentina
Matvienko.
Once completed and running at full capacity, the plant will produce
around 50,000 vehicles a year and employ up to 750 people from the local
region. The 167.5 hectare plant, situated 25 kilometers from St Petersburg's
city centre, will consist of assembly, paint, trim and chassis lines.
Nissan announced that the two models to be built at the plant will be the
Teana followed by the X-TRAIL.
Nissan's decision to open a new manufacturing plant in Russia was due to
its strong sales growth over recent years in the country, where Nissan has
seen an increase from less than 10,000 vehicles in 2003 to more than 75,000
in 2006. Furthermore, this year Russia is expected to overtake the UK as the
top volume market for Nissan in Europe for the first time.
To support this growth, Nissan also plans to triple its dealer network
compared to 2004 when Nissan began its sales operations in Russia, which will
take the number to around 100.
Notes to Editors:
Nissan employs around 12,000 people in its European design,
research and development, manufacturing, logistics, and sales and marketing
operations. Last year, the company produced a total of 506,602 vehicles in
its Spanish and British plants. Nissan Europe's Head Office is based in
Trappes (Paris), France. - In Russian version we will change this information
to the information about NMR business in Russia.
The Nissan Value-Up plan consists of four breakthrough areas
as follows:
1. Infiniti going global as a Tier 1 luxury brand
2. Focus on LCV's: achieve 434,000 units in FY07
3. Sourcing parts from Leading Competitive Countries
4. Significant geographic expansion
Contact:
Tatjana Natarova
Nissan Motor Rus Communications
Tel: +7-495-961-2131
Penny Szczepaniak
Nissan Europe Communications
Tel: +33-1-30-13-57-87
