In brief - 2004-04-15

The first quarter of 2004 saw a dramatic increase in the number of new cars that were registered in Latvia, up 37 percent on the same period last year. According to the Latvian Authorized Car Dealers Association, 964 new cars were registered in March, with Toyota at the top, followed by Mazda and Renault.

In February 636 cars were registered. Last year, Latvia registered 8,731 brand new cars, up 11 percent from 2002. Experts point to an expected rise in the cost of automobiles as one factor behind this trend.

Info-Auto, the Estonian car dealer that handles Volvo, Ford an Land Rover vehicles has signed an agreement with the Jaguar importer to the Baltics, Inchcape Motors Finland, under which it will be the official Jaguar dealer in Estonia. Until late March Viking Motors was a local Jaguar dealer, but the company decided not to extend its contract for reasons relating to EU accession and the need for additional investments. Established in 1993, Info-Auto is based in Tallinn with other centers in Tartu and Parnu. Last year the company sold 925 Ford and 260 Volvo cars in Estonia.

Baltijos Realizacijos Centras (Baltic Realization Center), a company of the Hansabank Group, reported a 35.5 percent increase in its sales of second-hand vehicles in 2003 in comparison with the previous year. The sale of used vehicles reached 1,549 units last year, coming close to 61 million litas (18 million euros). The BRC Lithuania subsidiary surpassed its counterparts in Latvia and Estonia in terms of used vehicle sales last year. In 2003 sales in Latvia totaled 698 used vehicles and 1,466 in Estonia. The growth in BRC Lithuania's sales appears to continue as first quarter results for 2004 involved the sale of 351 used vehicles - a 21 percent year-on-year increase.

Experts say that Latvia's accession to the European Union will cause the price of brand new vehicles to jump higher as car dealers anticipate prices to level out with those in other European countries. Until now car prices in Latvia have been 10 percent to 15 percent cheaper than in current EU member states, the Baltic News Service agency reported Ansis Auzins, vice president of Latvia's authorized car dealers association, as saying. Ainars Indriksons, sales director at Hansa Auto, an official dealer of Germany's Opel vehicles, expects prices to rise immediately following EU accession. Meanwhile Latvia's Skoda dealer, Karlo Motors, stated that the prices of new cars would rise by about to 3 percent a year. The dealer added that the biggest increase in prices would involve cars made outside the European Union, as import taxes will go up. According to BNS, import taxes for EU-made cars will no longer apply beginning May 1, while cars made in Russia and Japan will see taxes rise to 10 percent of value.

Last week authorities in Russia imposed a ban on the shipment of motor vehicles on the ferry route to St. Petersburg operated from Estonia by Tallink with the Fantaasia ferry. According to Igor Glukhov, director general of the Inflot company, which represents Tallink in Russia, the shipment of vehicles was halted because of the border guard authority's new requirements involving passage areas. The new requirements became known only shortly before the route was launched. Tallink's ferry began traveling the Tallinn-Helsinki-St. Petersburg route just recently, entering the Russian city's port for the first time on April 2.