[August 27, 2008]

Research and Markets: Introduction to Kazakhstani Passenger Car Market Report Contains All You Will Ever Need To Know On This Fascinating Subject

(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
RDATE:27082008

Dublin - Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/962d4e/introduction_to_ka)
has announced the addition of the "Introduction to Kazakhstani
Passenger Car Market" report to their offering.

With 15.5 million inhabitants, Kazakhstan is the fourth largest country
in CIS, after Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Given the difficult
political situation in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan is actually the third
most interesting country in CIS. Kazakhstan s real GDP was growing with
double-digits over the last years. Wages were also growing at a
comparable pace and are now at 424 USD per month on average. With
rising inflation, real growth will be more moderate in the future.

Kazakhstan s car penetration is comparable with Russia and still much
lower than in Western European markets. The growth in car park was
mainly driven by imports of used cars, which peaked in 2006. The new
car market is also growing continuously but growth rates of 40% p.a.
over the last years can not be maintained in the future. We estimate a
growth of about 19% p.a. until 2010.

The new car market is characterized through the large number of grey
dealers. Whereas in 2006 more than 50% of new car sales of non-CIS
brands were made through grey dealers, this share in reducing now.
Russian brands still play a strong role in the market and grow with
overall market development. The park is still dominated by VAZ.

Financing of cars is developing rapidly while market penetration is
still low. Financing is especially important for Kazakhstan since
consumers prefer large cars and SUVs which are more costly. The
availability of personal information for loan procedures is improving,
but only slowly. With rising inflation, however, the growth of car
financing might be limited.

Kazakhstan currently is not a market for small cars. Most cars sold are
from lower and upper medium class or SUV-class. The availability of
smaller cars is also limited, for example Toyota is not selling its
Yaris through its official dealerships. It is unclear, how consumers
will react to a better offering of smaller, affordable cars. With
energy prices up and inflation on the rise, smaller, less fuel
consuming cars could be an opportunity in the market.

Kazakhstan has no own passenger car brand. Azia Avto, a company listed
on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), currently is the only
producer, assembling Ladas, Skodas and Chevrolets. Nissan is about to
set up an assembling facility and several Korean and Chinese OEMs are
investigating a potential entry. With plans of AvtoVAZ, the Russian car
maker, to buy a stake of at least 25% in Azia Avto, the situation is
getting more complicated. Since Renault took a stake of 25% plus one
share in AvtoVAZ, and Renault and Nissan being part of the same group,
the car manufacturing scene in Kazakhstan might look different.

Given this situation, there is a limited number of players in the
automotive industry in Kazakhstan. Most of them export, mainly to
Russia. The government wants to develop the automotive industry and is
slowly progressing. Nissan s plant and Nokian Tyres production joint
venture are first steps. Kazakhstan s advantages are, besides

incentives provided by the government, its strategic location to
Russia, the upcoming Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) which will
develop a customs union between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus at first
and the low wages. In total, we expect a strong increase in local
production activities although still on a low level compared to major
automotive nations.

Key Topics Covered:

1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2

2 LIST OF FIGURES 4

3 LIST OF TABLES 6

4 SUMMARY 7 COUNTRY BASICS 10

5 KAZAKHSTANI PASSENGER CAR MARKET 19

6 KAZAKHSTANI COMPONENTS AND SPARE PARTS MARKET 43

7 OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS 59

8 APPENDICES 61

9 ABBREVIATIONS 65

List of Figures

List of Tables

For more information visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/962d4e/introduction_to_ka

CONTACT: Laura Wood, Senior Manager, Research and Markets
Fax: +1 646 607 1907 (US)
Fax: +353 1 481 1716 (Rest of World)
e-mail: press@researchandmarkets.com

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