Could your next appliance be made in Russia, if reports are correct than it may well be the case that a lot of appliances will be Russian made in the near future.
This week Bloomberg has reported that Western companies are pouring money into Russian facilities to take advantage of the weak Ruble and cheap labour that is available in Russia.
A recent report from the Russian expert centre said that, “Globally, Russia is part of a group of large exporters of washing machines and ranked eighth, ahead of Spain, the US and South Korea,”.
In January-September 2016, Russian exports of household washing machines jumped by 220 percent to a record 934,000 units worth $155 million.
Reports say that the current buyers of Russian washing machines are mostly Poland (21% of total exports), Romania (10.6%), Italy (10.2%), Germany, Serbia, Latvia, Hungary (1.5-2% each). In the CIS, the primary markets are still Kazakhstan (18.7%), Ukraine (13.5%) and Belarus (7.1%).
So far we’ve not seen any in the UK but, if these reports prove to be correct then expect Russian built machines to start to appear anytime now as manufacturers seek out ways to reduce production costs.
No doubt we’ll see some under own label brands as well so, we may not even know they’re Russian in origin!
