Stadco talks shop in Russia

, a supplier of body-in-white services and facilities to the automotive industry, is planning major developments in Russia as it continues its growth strategy in the country's fast-growing motor industry.

Stadco is engaged in an arrangement with Severstal-Auto, which is expected to lead to the establishment of world-class body stamping and assembly facilities in Russia.

The objective of this arrangement is to offer the growing number of international car makers that are moving into Russia modern, high quality stamping and assembly facilities, backed up by Stadco's full engineering support services and supply chain management processes.

The collaboration with Severstal-Auto initially involves Stadco leading the refurbishment and upgrading to international standards of Severstal-Auto's Ulyanovsk press shop. This plant will then be able to supply medium and small BIW components to international OEMs who are starting up in Russia. The second major project involves the creation of new stamping and assembly facilities in the Tatarstan region.

Stadco anticipates that vehicle production in Russia by incoming international manufacturers will amount to over 200,000 units per year in 2007, representing well over ten million potential outsourced stampings, with strong further growth likely.

In addition to the collaboration with Severstal-Auto, Stadco expects to develop and establish new BIW facilities in the St Petersburg and Moscow regions close to the assembly plants of international OEMs. These new facilities, which are being designed for modular expansion, in order to accommodate the expected continued growth of the Russian market, will feature fully automated press machinery and robotised assembly systems. They will focus on larger stampings and assemblies, including class-A skin panels. Start-up of operations is expected to be within two years.