Specifically, more than 1,000 people attended the opening ceremony, hosted by Nissan's CEO, Carlos Ghosn. Amongst those attending, Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin and Valentina Matvienko, St. Petersburg governor were the quests of honor.
"This is Nissan's breakthrough in Russia," Ghosn said. "The opening of our plant in Saint Petersburg in the current conditions underlines our confidence in the high potential of the Russian economy. With the start of production at our new plant Nissan become an integral part of the local community."
At first, only 750 people will work for Nissan in the facility projected to spit out some 50,000 vehicles each year, all of them being either Teana or X-Trail models. As Nissan hopes, the new plant will mark a road sign on the path to recovery for the ailing manufacturer.
This happens in light of recent developments, who show that Nissan is far from being out of the woods. Late last month, Nissan announced its official production, sales and export figures for April 2009, reporting a global production drop of 38.2 percent to 183,248 units.
"The St. Petersburg plant allows Nissan to localize our production and contribute to the development of the domestic auto industry. We hope to support to the local economy by creating employment opportunities, sharing of advanced technologies and development of the supply chain," Fujio Hosaka, Nissan Manufacturing Russia general director added.
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