According to a recent report, a source said that Volkswagen Group Russia (plants in Kaluga and Nizhny Novgorod) may resume production in June or July this year. Volkswagen announced on March 3 that it would stop production at its Kaluga and Nizhny Novgorod plants in Russia. The company is also suspending exports to Russia due to supply chain shortages and other issues. So far, the information to employees is that the shutdown will run until May 12.
The official announcement to employees of Volkswagen Group Russia will not be made until May 12, the source noted. Although according to some forecasts, it will continue until July (inclusive) as the supply of certain components is “stagnated” at the border with Poland. However, company management expects the issue to end by mid-May.
With no transit through Ukraine and Poland not allowing the passage of goods, sources said Volkswagen was considering the possibility of sending parts to Istanbul and to Russia via Georgia. Another source said VW was in preliminary discussions to restart transport in June and Volkswagen Russia had not yet cut production plans for 2022.
Gizchina News of the week
Russia will lose 70,000 to 100,000 programmers
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, American investors were very resistant to Russian companies. Yandex can not access its shares in the U.S. since early March 2022. On Tuesday, the Interfax news service claims that the Russian economy ministry is studying ways to delist the depositary receipts of foreign companies.
Yandex claims it did not have the money to redeem the $1.25 billion of bonds. These bonds could have come from common stock. Yandex had to hire advisers to help it negotiate with bondholders after the suspension of U.S. stocks. It needs this so investors could get full repayments.
The sanctions also created a serious brain drain for Russia. Russian tech workers are looking to move away from Russia’s growing economic isolation. This is why more Russian tech workers are looking to emigrate. Interfax reported last week, citing the Russian Association for Electronic Communications, that between 50,000 and 70,000 programmers have left Russia. This is only the first wave, others will likely follow. In April 2022, there maybe 70,000 to 100,000 programmers immigrating to Russia.
At present, the United States has imposed sanctions on Russia and the chip giant has cut off supply. The semiconductors in the servers of the Russian network service portal company Yandex may only support 12-18 months. Russia’s inventory of key semiconductors is insufficient. Its data centers, cloud computing services, and network services all take serious hits.
