OREANDA-NEWS. January 15, 2009. Car imports to Russia through the far eastern port of Vladivostok have decreased only slightly, customs officials said.

Whereas in the first days of January, some 650 vehicles a day were cleared, the local customs department now clears some 500 autos a day, spokeswoman for the Vladivostok Customs Department Viktoria Shamayeva said on Wednesday.

The last of the cars delivered to Vladivostok before January 12 are to be cleared shortly. The applications were submitted by their owners before Russia introduced higher customs duties on imported cars, so their clearance runs under old rules and is less expensive.

There are over 3,500 such cars at present. The number of imported cars may decrease considerably in the months to come.

In 2008, Russia imported more than 333,000 secondhand cars from Japan and South Korea, up 20 percent from the same period in 2007.

In 2008, the Vladivostok customs department transferred to the federal budget 62 billion roubles, including 17 billion roubles in the fourth quarter. Duties on imported cars made up 50 percent of the revenue.

Deductions to the federal budget may decrease by 40 percent due to a slump in imports of foreign secondhand cars, deputy director for economic activities of the Vladivostok customs department Leonid Gurin said.

More than 12,000 secondhand cars from Japan were brought to Vladivostok in the last few days of 2008, ahead of the announced increase in import duties.

On the average, customs duties on imported cars and trucks increased by one-third from Sunday midnight.

The customs duties increased by 20 to 80 percent depending on the manufacturing date and type of imported vehicle. For cars produced less than 5 years ago the rate increases by 25-30 percent. The old rate was 0.85 euros per 1 cubic centimeter of engine, whereas the new rate ranges between 1.5 to 3.6 euros.

The increase was the largest for cars produced more than five years ago. Whereas the tariff for cars over seven years old was 1.4 to 3.2 euros per one cubic centimeter of engine, higher rates (2.5 to 5.8 euros per one cubic centimeter of engine) came into effect on January 12 for cars produced more than five years ago.

The share of Russian cars in the overall sales volume has been steadily decreasing in the past few years.

Whereas 830,000 Russian cars were sold in 2005 (out of 1.4 million cars, not counting foreign models assembled in Russia), the ratio was 756,000 to 2.4 million in 2007.

The size of the Russian car market exceeds 3.2 million cars, including almost 2.8 million passenger cars.

Russia's regional governors largely supported the measures saying the domestic manufacturers must take advantage of it to improve the quality of their products.

Russia's carmaker AVTOVAZ sold over 622,000 cars last year, down 6 percent from the previous year.

It sold 94,000 Lada Kalina models, up 19 percent from 2007, while volume of sales of Lada Prioras amounted to 128,000 (up 70,000 cars from 2007).

The company exported 106,000 Lada cars in 2008, which approximates the level of 2007.

Japan's leading auto makers earlier expressed concerns over higher duties on imported cars introduced by Russia, fearing a steeper decline in the already plunging sales worldwide.

In November, Mitsubishi Motor sold twice as few cars in Russia compared with the same period in 2007.

The Russian market accounts for some 13 percent of the companies' world sales, or more than 100,000 cars a year.

The Nissan Corporation told the channel that it had felt a tangible decrease in sales in Russia from October.
Russian consumers purchased more than 140,000 Nissan cars in 2007.