South Korean companies had been among the many largest suppliers to Aurus.
Tbilisi:
Laughing and joking, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean chief Kim Jong-un cruised round Pyongyang final week in a Russian-made Aurus limousine to showcase their strengthened anti-Western alliance.
The luxurious sedan was meant to epitomize Russia’s home prowess and cut back dependence on imported know-how and items when unveiled in 2018.
However customs data present that the corporate that builds it makes use of tens of millions of {dollars} in imported components, many arriving in Russia from what Kim has described as his nation’s “main foe”, South Korea.
The imports level to Russia’s ongoing reliance on Western know-how because it seeks to navigate Western makes an attempt to chop it off from international provide chains as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine.
The 2 leaders took turns driving the armoured limousine throughout Putin’s pomp-filled go to, his first in almost 1 / 4 of a century to North Korea, in an indication of the 2 nuclear powers’ more and more shut ties.
Russia imported gear and elements price at the very least $34 million between 2018 and 2023 for assembling Aurus automobiles and bikes, customs data seen by Reuters confirmed. Reuters doesn’t have entry to more moderen knowledge.
The imports included automotive physique components, sensors, programmable controllers, switches, welding gear, and different elements price virtually $15.5 million imported from South Korea. Components had been additionally imported from China, India, Turkey, Italy, and different EU international locations.
International provides for Aurus stored coming after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with items price virtually $16 million, together with $5 million produced in South Korea, imported since February 2022, the data confirmed.
Reuters couldn’t decide particularly which imported overseas components ended up within the automotive gifted to Kim, and the imports weren’t in breach of sanctions – Aurus LLC was sanctioned by the US in February 2024.
The Aurus sedan was developed by Russian state-owned analysis institute NAMI in partnership with Russian carmaker Sollers, which has since offered its stake.
Aurus Motors and its CEO Andrey Pankov didn’t reply to Reuters’ requests for touch upon the usage of overseas components, together with from South Korea, in its autos.
Rising Manufacturing
The corporate launched official manufacturing in Russia’s Tatarstan area, round 1,000 km (620 miles) from Moscow, in 2021 – earlier than then it was made on a small, experimental scale at NAMI. It’s going to begin further manufacturing in St Petersburg later this 12 months at Toyota’s former manufacturing facility.
Toyota is one in all many overseas carmakers to exit the Russian market because the invasion, which Russia calls a “particular army operation”.
The exodus has left a niche that Chinese language producers have been fast to fill, quickly seizing greater than half the market share and exposing Russia’s restricted home manufacturing capability.
South Korean companies had been among the many largest suppliers to Aurus, together with industrial gear producer Kyungki Industrial Co, automotive physique components producer BYT CO LTD, and batteries provider Enertech Worldwide Inc.
Italian plastic components producer Industrie Ilpea Spa and Hong Kong firm Rain Electronics additionally equipped items.
An official at Kyungki Industrial Co confirmed that the corporate has equipped components to Aurus LLC and continues to take action. The corporate is just not involved about any potential sanctions, the official stated, declining to present additional particulars.
Rain Electronics couldn’t be reached for remark. When a Reuters correspondent visited the tackle listed on the web as the corporate’s workplace in Hong Kong, there was no hint of Rain Electronics on the ground listed on-line or within the workplace constructing.
BYT CO LTD, Enertech Worldwide, and Industrie Ilpea Spa didn’t reply to Reuters’ requests for remark.
The Aurus Senat, retro-styled after the Soviet-era ZIL limousine, is Russia’s official presidential automotive and was utilized by Putin at his presidential inaugurations in 2018 and 2024.
Putin has now given Kim, believed to be a eager car fan, two Aurus automobiles, first throughout Kim’s go to to Russia in February, and a barely totally different mannequin in North Korea in June.
Costs for Aurus automobiles – there are 4 fashions together with an SUV and an armoured model – begin from 46.625 million roubles ($528,356). Prospects embrace Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdymukhamedov.
Aurus offered 107 automobiles in Russia in 2023, in accordance with knowledge from Russian analytical company Autostat. Aurus doesn’t disclose manufacturing numbers.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
