In August 2012, a sharp slowdown took place within the transportation engineering sector. Compared to August of last year, growth was only 4.5 percent, the worst result for the industry in recent years.

The reduced production of railway equipment had a negative impact on the overall result. In addition, the reduction in the rate of growth in the automotive industry exerted additional downward forces on the market. As such, while in June 2012, the annual rate of growth in this sub-sector was 128.2 percent and in July some 126.2 percent, by August, it fell to 112.5 percent. The reversal of the positive trends was associated with the completion of the old car recycling program and the end of concessional lending.

In actual terms, the growth of car production remains the highest for all types of vehicles. In August 2012, the volume of car production in Russia stood at 150 thousand units, which is 3.2 percent more than in August 2011. However, the growth in the passenger car sector was achieved through the assembly of foreign models.

The situation has greatly improved in the production of commercial vehicles. In August, the volume of production increased compared to August 2011 by 14.2 percent to 19.1 thousand units. According to ASM-Holding, truck production in Russia from January to August 2012 stood at 132.1 thousand units, a figure representing a 3.8 percent increase compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. In the reporting period, the production of domestic models totaled 113.2 thousand units (up 1.1 percent), and the production of foreign brand trucks was 18.9 thousand units (up 23.4 percent).

Russian truck sales from January to August 2012 increased compared to the corresponding period of the previous year by 22 percent to 246.52 thousand units. Sales of Russian-brand trucks rose 8.4 percent to 109.64 thousand units. Sales of Russian-made foreign brand trucks increased by 37 percent to 17.82 thousand units. At the same time, imports of new vehicles rose by 34.2 percent to 104.12 thousand cars.

The production of buses also is growing rapidly. In August 2012, bus production increased relative to production figures for August 2011 by 17.1 percent – up to 4.8 thousand units. According to ASM-Holding, the production of buses in Russia for the first eight months of 2012 increased by 30.9 percent to 34.5 thousand units. Of the total number of buses produced, the production of domestic models totaled 28.8 thousand units, reflecting an increase of 42.6 percent over production statistics for the corresponding period of the previous year. Foreign-brand bus production declined by 7.4 percent to 5.7 thousand vehicles.

From January to August 2012, the bus market saw a significantly higher rate of recovery than the car market as a whole. Compared to January-August 2011, sales of buses in the reporting period increased by 29.1 percent, reaching 45.1 thousand units. The Russian-brand buses segment saw sales increase 1.4 times to 26.3 thousand units. At the same time, the sales of Russian-made foreign-brand vehicles fell by 7.6 percent, and their market share fell from 17.8 percent to 12.7 percent. Imports of new buses increased by 22.7 percent.