Tender conditions for purchase of 10 large buses by Kryvy Rih cut off Ukrainian manufacturers – Etalon Corporation
KYIV. Feb 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian automakers call the tender conditions for the purchase of 10 large low-floor buses by Kryvy Rih for UAH 125 million as discriminatory and believe that these conditions are prescribed for Turkish Guleryuz buses, which are also significantly more expensive than the equipment that domestic automotive plants can offer.
"The announced tender in Kryvy Rih has become an occasion to talk about economic patriotism today, especially in war conditions. In addition, the expected price of one bus is the equivalent of $320,000 per unit, and our Chernihiv Automotive Plant can offer it for $220,000. But we cannot take part in the tender, based on the conditions prescribed by the customer," Director of the Etalon Auto Trading House Vadym Shkarupin said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
He said that the Etalon Corporation analyzed the public procurement market for large buses in Ukraine from 2018 to the present.
According to the data announced by Deputy Director of Etalon Auto Trading House Oleksandr Chernytsky, during this period 17 purchases were made and 151 buses were purchased, of which only 30% were Ukrainian, and 70% were Belarusian or Turkish. At the same time, municipal enterprises of cities purchased 80%, state-owned companies bought 20% for the transportation of employees. In particular, Guleryuz buses were purchased by Ivano-Frankivsk in 2018. At the same time, three companies participated in the tender, offering only foreign equipment (two offered Guleryuz buses, one offered Isuzu).
"We studied the terms of this tender and compared them with the requirements in Kryvy Rih, and a number of them turned out to be almost identical. Therefore, we assume with a high degree of probability that there will be similar participants in this tender," Chernytsky said.
Shkarupin also said that, given this trend, a non-Ukrainian manufacturer could win the now renewed tender for the purchase of buses by Ternopil at the expense of the European Investment Bank (the tender was suspended in April 2022 for an indefinite period).
Sales Director of the Chernihiv Automotive Plant Natalia Bachurna said that municipal companies managing state funds should not be guided by their own tastes in procurement but first of all take care of saving state funds.
"Their task is to attract as many participants as possible to create competition, reduce the purchase price, while in this case the conditions are prescribed for a specific manufacturer. And today, we are fighting for participation in the auction," she said.
Bachurna reminded that Chernihiv Automotive Plant, which suffered from shelling and is now resuming production, is in dire need of product sales.
"If the plant does not survive, it cannot be restored. It will be a loss for decades. Therefore, I think that it is simply criminal to spend state funds in this way. Ukraine today relies on international assistance, and we give money to another state," Bachurna said.
At the same time, she added that the situation is actually repeating when Ukrainian automakers "constantly shouted" that the purchase of Belarusian buses would lead to problems with maintenance, spare parts, etc.
As Shkarupin said, the purchase of foreign equipment leads to a reduction in tax revenues to the budget by at least 10 times, taking into account the smaller tax base.
He also said that Turkish buses were recently included in the register of vehicles with local content of more than 15% (a necessary condition for the level of local content in 2023).
"This is done quite easily. And we raised this issue at a recent meeting in the Federation of Employers, but so far there is no mechanism for controlling fake local content," he said.
Shkarupin recalled that today, in Ukraine there are several manufacturing plants capable of producing large buses, including the Chernihiv Automotive Plant, ZAZ, the Lutsk plant of the Bogdan corporation, and the Lviv-based plant ElectronMash.
"Therefore, I call on Ukrainian statesmen: turn your face to domestic producers," he said.