General Motors will sharply expand production capacity at its new plant in St. Petersburg to help handle growing demand for cars in Russia, GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster said on Wednesday, March 14.

The plant, due to come on line late next year, will be expanded to handle 100,000 units a year instead of the 40,000 units originally planned, Forster told a conference call with reporters after the carmaker released quarterly earnings.

“That will hardly be enough to meet demand in Russia,” Forster was quoted by Reuters as saying. He noted that the world’s biggest carmaker would have to rely as well on cooperation accords with partners in Russia and Ukraine.

Russia was GM’s fifth-biggest market in Europe in 2006. It sold 132,600 vehicles there, more than in markets such as France and the Benelux countries.

GM Europe’s overall sales in 2006 topped 2 million units.

News source: mosnews.com
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