AvtoVAZ Plans Another Production Cutback

Lada-maker OAO AvtoVAZ says it will reduce production to four days per week at its giant factory complex in Togliatti between Oct. 17 and Feb. 19.

It’s the third time this year AvtoVAZ has slashed output at the facility. It cut operations to four days per week for six months beginning Feb. 15, and it shut down entirely for three weeks beginning July 25.

The Togliatti facility assembles Lada, Nissan and Renault cars. But sales of those three brands dropped 10%, 26% and 9%, respectively, through the first seven months of 2016, according to the Moscow-based Assn. of European Businesses.

The overall car and light commercial truck market in Russia has contracted 14% so far this year. AEB concedes demand is “nowhere near” likely to match last year’s result, when volume shrank 36% to 1.60 million units.