KamAZ to Upgrade Product Line, Produce New Trucks With Daimler

OAO KamAZ, the Russian truck maker partly owned by Daimler AG (DAI), will upgrade its product line through 2014 and produce new trucks designed jointly with the German company, General Director Sergei Kogogin said.

The company wants the government to set a maximum tax for imported commercial vehicles more than three years old after Russia’s membership in the World Trade Organization takes effect this year, Kogogin said in an interview in St. Petersburg, Russia today.

The company has always worked in a “high-competitive market,” Kogogin said, and is ready for WTO membership. Still, local producers need extra security the maximum tax rate to foreign-made vehicles would bring to stay competitive, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anatoly Temkin in St. Petersburg at atemkin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James M. Gomez at jagomez@bloomberg.net