Russia ramps up car production, but full recovery remains distant

Russia ramped up car production in 2024 by double-digit percentages, but a full recovery to pre-war manufacturing rates remains distant.

According to Russian car industry analysts Autostat, from January to November 2024, Russia produced 679,000 cars, a 39.3% increase from the same period last year.

In April 2024, Russia's Industry Ministry projected that domestic production of all car segments would exceed 800,000 in 2024.

The 2024 annualized car production totaled just over 740,000 units, compared to 537,000 units produced in 2023. Despite this 38% spike, car output remains about half of the 1.4 million units produced in 2021, the last year before the escalation of conflict with Ukraine, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights estimates based on Rosstat data.

In November 2024, manufacturers produced 80,400 cars, 25% more than a year ago and 30% higher than the monthly average for 2024. November also marked the launch of the Haval M6 crossover at Kaluga-based Automotive Technologies, as the Haval plant in the Tula region was fully utilized.

Autostat reported on Jan. 3 that the production of trucks in Russia in January-November 2024 totaled 178,000, up 9.8% from the previous year.

Platts, part of Commodity Insights, assessed the Russian domestic hot-rolled coil price at Rb49,800 ($450)/mt CPT Moscow on Dec. 31, unchanged from the previous week but representing an 11.5% drop from the average assessment over January-September 2024, which was Rb56,500/mt.