Suzuki's Hungarian production halts due to Russia/Ukraine gas dispute
Russia and Ukraine are presently in the midst of a natural gas pricing dispute. Russia wants Ukraine to pay closer to market price for the commodity. Ukraine says that Russia should pay more for the use of its pipelines, through which the bulk of the EU's Russia-sourced natural gas flows. Russia has escalated matters by cutting off its gas shipments via Ukrainian pipelines completely, and the EU is scrambling as it deals with shortages. Obviously, there's zero love lost between Russia and Ukraine, and political finger-pointing continues apace. Pricing negotiations resume tomorrow, and EU monitors are likely to get involved. In the meantime, the effect is already being felt in the European industrial sector. Hungarian government restrictions on industrial gas usage have forced Magyar Suzuki to cease production entirely. The automaker's Esztergom plant, located around 30 miles outside Budapest, produces the Suzuki Swift; the Suxuki SX4 and Fiat Sedici; and the Suzuki Splash / Opel Agila twins. Suzuki hopes to get Esztergom back online this coming Monday.
[Sources: WaPo, WSJ, Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
firstplace 4:05PM (1/07/2009)
Is there an autoblog Hungary? How do you guys find some of this stuff?
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Kyle 4:19PM (1/07/2009)
Reuters my friend.
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judd 4:36PM (1/07/2009)
What's the next Russian move? Are they going to say Ukraine is provoking them and invade? Georgia
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Mike 4:38PM (1/07/2009)
Just like Iraq was provoking the US...
Mr. Luke 5:01PM (1/07/2009)
They do have bad gas.
Dondonel 5:06PM (1/07/2009)
@Mike
How does that justify Russia's actions?
Why don't you go in Eastern Europe and detail your reasoning?
Kotse 5:09PM (1/07/2009)
Ruskies stops selling....fart. ;)
ebm14 6:13PM (1/07/2009)
They should have just made them in Japan. This is why I don't believe in globalization of the car industry.
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Frank 5:08PM (1/07/2009)
damn commis
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bill 5:30PM (1/07/2009)
Can't we just get along? I mean what is this overpowering need for wealth and world domination? Why do we need 35 college bowl games to wrap up the football season? I can stand only so many shots of cheer leaders and marching bands before I want to cut off their gas natural and any other gas they are creating.
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Lad 6:16PM (1/07/2009)
They have the same problem we have except their problem is an economy that depends on Russian gas while our economy depends on oil. Were would we be if OPEC cut off our oil? Same, same!
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judd 7:00PM (1/07/2009)
If OPEC tries it, we invade America's hat.
Villy 9:34PM (1/09/2009)
Some of you guys couldn't be any more misinformed. I'm from Eastern-Europe., Esztergom to be exact, where the Suzuki factory is.
First of all Russia only stopped the gas, because Ukraine shut off the gas that was meant to get here, and was not meant for them. So why would Russia keep sending gas in the pipes if Ukraine stops it anyway. Second: Ukraine until 2009 paid half the price for gas, ($180 instead of $418 /1.000 m3) but still they didn't want to pay 250, which is still a very friendly price. This has nothing to do with commies. Good news. We have national gas reserves, but Ukraine is running out of gas, so an agreement will be made soon. Also Hungary imports gas from France and Austria now, and we sold some to Serbia.
The restrictions were lifted after a day, most of the plants are working, but Suzuki decided to remain closed down until Monday, because they don't want to order in the workers before an agreement between R & U. In short: They are afraid of another restriction that may come.
@ebm14: They do make some of the cars there, but there are some models only our plant manufactures. I hear they are opening a new factory in St. Petersburg.
Cheers!
Villy (skype: hun_villy)
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Andrey 1:13PM (1/14/2009)
Imagine you're running a delivery service, you're sending something to your customer and he gets a half of what you have sent. Are you using the same intermediary for business in the future? I think the answer is no. It is Ukraine who wants to get be a part of the European community, I think stopping stealing someone other's goods and scaling back corruption from insane to more acceptable levels could be a good start for Kiev.
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