Rostec’s subsidiary bank provides KAMAZ guarantees of 15bn rubles

Rostec’s subsidiary bank — Novikombank — provided KAMAZ PJSC bank guarantees for a total of 15 billion rubles. As the bank said, this money is going to be finance the current activity of the Chelny company and implement projects within import substitution or, more precisely, to develop the product line, R&D, engineering developments and introduce innovative technologies.

It is noteworthy that Rostec is KAMAZ’s major shareholder. In 2021, the company’s revenue was 248,3 billion rubles, net profit reached 4 billion rubles.

The topic of substitution of foreign components was raised at KAMAZ last year after the start of the special military operation because it was imposed sanctions. Last August, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov urged the management of the republic’s Ministry of Industry and Trade to look for partners to localise import-substituting plants making rubber products for KAMAZ lorries. The factory experienced an acute deficit of sealing rings and rubber-mounted windscreens that aren’t produced in Russia.

According to forecasts, KAMAZ is going to cut market sales to 40,000 lorries with 65-68,000 vehicles with 14-40 tonnes of cargo capacity in 2023 amid the possible fall in the market.

It recently became known that the first upgraded KAMAZ-54901 was assembled at KAMAZ. The production of this K5 version will not depend on supplies of components from unfriendly countries. The company too called the lorries “sanction resistant.”

“The first upgraded KAMAZ-54901 cargo lorry was assembled on the general conveyor belt. Despite the consequences of the sanctions pressure (suspended supplies of components from a number of countries), 150 lorries with the 54901 index monthly left the conveyor belt last year, components from warehouses were used in their production,” the message reads.

As the press service explained, specialists of KAMAZ’s quality department looked the first lorry over. After eliminating faults, the lorry will go to the company’s research and engineering centre where its units and components will undergo a number of trials. Serial production will follow the certification of the upgraded model.