BMW puts off plans for new Russian factory

BMW has  postponed a decision about whether to build a new assembly plant in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad because of the uncertainty caused by the economic crisis which has already caused sales of its cars in the region to fall by more than 40% in March and by 14% across the first quarter of the year.  “Russia is a challenge  for our company and we have asked ourselves how will things develop  there,”,Chief Executive Norbert Reithofer told reporters on Wednesday.
BMW’s experience is  more or less in  line with that of the Russian automotive sector as whole, where sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles fell by 41.5% in March, according to the Association of European Business. 

Source: Rosbalt