The version for the print

  • 2013 August 9

    Automobile market welcomes innovations

    Automobile boom in Russia seems to go down. Experts say there will be no amazing growth in this market. The companies specializing in foreign car logistics anticipate escalated competition and understand they can win only with the state-of-the-art IT solutions. River transportation is a promising sector and transportation of cars in containers is likely to become popular again.

    According to the Association of European Businesses in Russia, sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in the Russian Federation declined by 6% in January-July 2013 against the result of the same period in 2012. 

    However, the Association is moderately optimistic. According to Joerg Schreiber, Chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee, “Total market momentum was not good in recent months, and July has not brought about a fundamental change to that. There are indications however for that the rate of decline has reached its peak in the 2nd quarter, and that we can expect a gradual improvement to the point of stabilization in the coming months. The recently announced government program in support of retail-financed car purchases will be helpful in reaching this point sooner rather than later, and is therefore very welcome”.

    As Yury Vorontsov, Director General of Russian Transport Lines (logistic group RTL), commented for IAA PortNews, import is likely to decline as more and more large automobile manufactures appear in Russia. Logistics of import cars in Russia is one of RTL key activities.

    “Automobile market has entered the phase of stabilization. Recent years have seen no high growth so all the companies strive to reduce expenses. IT becomes a priority now and more companies try to introduce the most advanced systems for logistic management ensuring comprehensive control of supply chains and to search for methods improving efficiency and cost reduction,” Yury Vorontsov said.

    RTL has recently introduced the Comprehensive system of vehicle fleet management and automobile logistics, Quality management system and System for management of marine and inland terminals.

    “Each of our team members has participated in creation or modernization of IT products,” says Aleksandr Venediktov, Director General of IT company WITS. “Integration of this knowledge within one company helps to find highly tailored practical solutions and to make them both easy to apply and easy to integrate with the current processes of our customers.” 

    “We have founded IT-company WITS as a system integrator enabling us develop experience in IT-solutions and combine our knowledge with the skills acquired when implementing projects in other companies for extra synergetic effect,” Venediktov says.

    Meanwhile, the market of automobile transportation is developing with optimization of supply chains requiring application of all possible types of transport. Since global brand production facilities develop in different regions of Russia, two-way loading of car carriers is in demand today. 

    Besides, market players have recalled the method of passenger car transportation in containers. As of today, automobile components come to the plants in containers which can go back to seaports loaded with new cars destined for further export or transit.  

    Transportation of cars by inland water transport can become an upcoming trend in automobile logistics. It can cover both import cars and those produced in Russia. 

    Earlier, Victor Olersky, Deputy Transport Minister of the Russian Federation emphasized the necessity to develop car transportation by inland water transport. According to him, some 2 mln passenger cars are transported along the Volga river by motor transport and railways. The project on creation of a river ferry can be included into the programme on the development of civil marine facilities.

    Konstantin Skovoroda, Chairman of RTL BoD, supported the opinion of the Deputy Minister, though somewhat cautiously. He says that despite current negative trend of automobile market, Russia really sees the growth of cargo traffic along Volga. “In the future, this traffic is to grow due to growing local production (in view of ambitious plans of Renault Nissan alliance), on the one hand, and car sales shifting to regions, on the other hand,” the expert thinks.

    However, in his interview to IAA PortNews Konstantin Skovoroda noted that “considerable investments are required for arrangement of ferry transportation into river port infrastructure and especially into building of state-of-the-art ferries flying the flag of Russia.” According to him, there is no information on any market players to plan implementation of such a project. “But it could be an interesting idea in the future,” he said.

    Vitaly Chernov

    Information:

    WITS has been operating in the market of system integration and engineering from 2005.

    WITS provides a complete cycle of activities on business automation:
    •    analysis, optimization and re-engineering of customer’s business processes;
    •    introduction of the company’s own solutions and adaptation of systems produced by third parties;
    •    development, delivery, putting into operation and integration of specialized equipment;
    •    audit of customer’s information systems and equipment as well as their modernization;
    •    project technology of works and further support of introduced systems
    Basic specialization of the company:
    •    corporate information systems;
    •    automatic process control system;
    •    industrial electronics
    Engineering solutions of WITS include:
    •    systems recognizing numbers of containers, automobiles and wagons;
    •    systems monitoring location with radio mark and GPS sensors;
    •    bar-code scanning systems and data terminals;
    •    weighing systems

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