The Russian saddle creaks again – Newspaper Kommersant No. 62 (7507) dated 04/11/2023

The government will consider additional subsidies for sales of Russian truck tractors. We are actually talking about their preferential leasing, Kommersant’s sources say. Car leasing program, including tractors, for 2 billion rubles. This is how it works, the Ministry of Industry and Trade notes, speaking about the issued equipment for 1.3 billion. But, as the industry indicates, in practice the limits allocated to lessors have already been exhausted or booked for specific transactions. At the same time, some of Kommersant’s interlocutors talk about the need to renew the program for all commercial vehicles.

The Government Commission on Transport will consider the possibility of resuming the program, which stimulates the purchase of domestic truck tractors through subsidies, said the secretariat of the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Andrei Belousov.

Now the purchase, including truck tractors at a discount, is available as part of the preferential leasing program, the Ministry of Industry and Trade explained to Kommersant.

To date, more than 4.2 thousand vehicles worth 1.3 billion rubles have been sold under the program. subsidies, specify there. The total budget of the program for 2023 amounted to only 2 billion rubles. “The need to resume a specialized program aimed at the sale of truck tractors can be worked out jointly with the industry community, depending on the needs of the market,” the Ministry of Industry and Trade concludes.

Kommersant’s interlocutors point out that the proposal to “renew” the program for domestic tractors actually involves their preferential leasing – we are talking about the allocation of funds for a discount on an advance payment.

Despite the fact that official data shows 0.7 billion rubles. balance under the preferential leasing program, four interlocutors of Kommersant familiar with the situation indicate that the funds have actually been exhausted. One of them clarifies that a number of lessors still have stocks, but for specific transactions. Another Kommersant source says that “the funds are almost over”: “Leasing companies have not been accepting new retail applications for preferential leasing for more than a week.” He clarified that against the background of the exhaustion of limits, the need for additional funding “is in all segments of the commercial transport, not only in tractors.”

Kommersant’s interlocutors call KamAZ an interest in the targeted renewal of support.

As follows from the release, the Association of International Road Carriers (ASMAP) participated in the meeting of the government commission – at least it and the FCS were instructed to work out a number of initiatives. Before the crisis, ASMAP figured in the initiatives to admit Mercedes tractors (produced by Daimler and KamAZ JVs) to the preferential leasing program, despite their low level of localization. Then ASMAP reported that Daimler KamAZ Rus would release in the Russian Federation in November-December up to 200 Mercedes-Benz 1845 LS truck tractors of the Euro-6 class, which were planned to be delivered to members of the association at a special price of € 99.9 thousand apiece ( cm. “Kommersant” dated November 30, 2020).

Previously, the funds for the program of preferential car loans for cars with internal combustion engines, the main beneficiary of which is AvtoVAZ, have already been exhausted. But the head of the automaker Maxim Sokolov pointed out that 1.5 billion rubles. from the total budget of 5 billion rubles. “has been blocked under the electric vehicle program.” As a result, at the end of March, they were redistributed to the internal combustion engine.

Preferential leasing of tractors is now in high demand, says Dmitry Babansky from SBS Consulting. Before the crisis in 2022, about 50% of sales were accounted for by European brands, he explains, and after the suspension of their deliveries and the restoration of demand for equipment, Chinese tractors began to actively occupy the market share. The latter benefited, among other things, due to the price, he adds, and against this background it is very important to support Russian-made equipment.

Olga Nikitina