Japanese scooter and motorcycle assembly plant opens in Kaliningrad

The first assembly plant for Japanese scooters and motorcycles in Russia opened in Kaliningrad yesterday. Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda scooters and motorcycles will now be assembled at the Kaliningrad plant. Rosbalt reports that Kaliningrad Region governor Vladimir Yegorov took part in the plant's opening ceremonies.

Kaliningrad company Balt Motors Group with technical assistance from Chinese company Qinggi organized the new plant which will assemble twelve models of motorcycles and scooters. Balt Motors Group provided the new plant with technology and equipment and trained plant workers. Now the company is also supplying component parts and is controlling the quality of the final products. The plant has an optimal production capacity of 20 thousand scooters and motorcycles per year.

Balt Motors Group Director Dmitry Sivkov said over the course of the last seven years his company has specialized in the sale and service of automobiles, motorcycles and jet skies and maintains a network of dealers in 20 Russian regions. 'There is no problem with demand here especially when you consider that our motorcycles are 30-40% cheaper than imports,' said Sivkov. He added that the company's orders had already surpassed production volume for this year.