OREANDA-NEWS. June 28, 2010. In his report Sergey Kogoghin, Director General of OJSC KAMAZ summed up the results of the company’s work in 2009. He noted that KAMAZ had successfully worked in 2009 trying to overcome the consequences of the global financial crisis. The total volume of the 14-40 tonne GVW truck market in Russia decreased 3.2 times as much (by 69%), as compared with 2008. At the same time, having sold 25.9 thousand units of automotive equipment (3.9 thousand of them were exported) KAMAZ managed to keep the falling yield on the level of 45.4%, and the company’s sales share in the Russian market increased from 28% to 55%.

The demand for trucks would have decreased even more without supportive measures implemented by the RF Government in good time. Public vehicle purchasing programs were very important for the company. 60.5 billion roubles of budgetary funds were allocated for them in 2009. About 23% of them were spent to purchase KAMAZ production.

A decision to prolongate a validity term of heightened rates of entrance custom duties on commercial vehicles became another effective step to defend the automobile market and domestic manufacturers. Other measures of the state support – provision of state guarantees, subsidizing of interest rates on export credits and measures to stabilize the situation in the labour-market – also exerted their significant positive influence upon the financial and economic condition of automobile enterprises.

As far back as at the end of 2008 KAMAZ planned a number of crisis-management measures for 2009 which included, firstly, a program of sales activization in the free market, secondly, cost saving along all the lines of activity, and thirdly, optimization of a circulating capital at the expense of reduction of the redundant rest of end products and unfinished production reserves. As a result, the company managed to maintain a positive cash flow from operations, to avoid payment defaults and continue financing its most important investment projects.

The company sets itself the following tasks for 2010: to increase the realized production volume to 27 thousand vehicles and consolidated proceeds of the KAMAZ Group to 66 billion roubles with EBITDA profitability of no less than 7.0%.

Even in today’s difficult situation the KAMAZ Group undertakes to strengthen positions of the Russian leading truck producer well-known in the global automobile market. The main tasks are to keep the company’s development potential and make it an adaptive, effective, global company able to produce competitive products in its segments. Developed and adopted was a large-scale investment program. Implementation of its projects will enable to develop a diversified model line by 2013 which will be based on modern components produced by the KAMAZ Group in partnership with global producers.

In a long-term prospect (to 2018) the company’s main strategic aim will be to completely build an adaptive, effective and global company.

By means of a cumulative voting the participants of the meeting elected new members of the company’s management representative bodies – the Board of Directors and the Auditing Committee of OJSC KAMAZ. The results of the election will be published in July.