TODAY.AZ / Business

Car imports continue sharp decline in Azerbaijan

06 October 2015 [09:34] - TODAY.AZ

/By AzerNews/

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijan imported 21,147 cars during the first eight months of this year, which is half of the total imports from the same period last year, the State Customs Committee said.

For comparison, the import of motor vehicles totaled 43,276 units, which included 39,198 cars, in January-August last year.

The declining trend in auto imports continued into this year, after imports fell by 39.3 percent in 2014.

Azerbaijan imported 686 passenger vans that could hold 10 or more people, 18,821 cars and other smaller passenger motor vehicles, 1,437 trucks, and 203 special purpose vehicles.

If the trend continues, car imports for the year might not exceed 31,721 cars, which include only 28,232 passenger cars. This will be 49.9 percent and 51 percent below 2014 levels.

In 2014, the total import of vehicles and spare parts amounted to $841,898 million, which a 41.3 percent drop from 2013.

Azerbaijan imports most of its cars from neighboring Georgia, but has reduced imports by 4.8 times so far in the first eight months of 2015.

Car imports began to fall from April 2014, when Azerbaijan moved to the Euro-4 ecological standard, which prohibits the import of older cars in an attempt to curb air pollution.

According to Euro-4 regulations, cars imported from the EU manufactured prior to 2005, 2004 in the U.S., 2011 in China and Japan, 2006 in Korea, and 2009 in Turkey are forbidden.

Today, Azerbaijan with a population of over 9.6 million people has a saturated market with over 1.2 million cars. Moreover, in 10 years, the number of cars is expected to reach 3 million.

Such a large number of vehicles negatively affect the environment, which is why Azerbaijan made the decision to reduce automobile emissions.

The shift to Euro-4 has also affected tariffs on imported cars. The prices for cars meeting Euro-4 standards are higher than Euro-2 standard cars. Taxes vary depending on the size of the engine.

Another possible reason for the decline in car demand is the devaluation of the national currency in early 2015, which lead to a rise in car prices. Experts say the prices of new cars changed only in manats, but remained the same in USD.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/business/144147.html

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