Daimler says to start car production in Russia

MOSCOW/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German automaker Daimler (DAIGn.DE) will open a plant near Moscow to manufacture Mercedes-Benz cars, it announced on Tuesday, the first new investment by a major Western automaker since sanctions were imposed on Russia three years ago.

The plant will be Daimler's first passenger vehicle produced in Russia. The firm said it would invest more than 250 million euros (211 million pounds) in the facility, and the first cars will leave the assembly line in 2019.

Russia's Trade and Industry Ministry said in a statement that the plant will produce more than 20,000 Mercedes-Benz passenger cars and SUVS per year under an agreement that will run for nine years.

“Russia is of strategic importance for Mercedes-Benz and an attractive growth market," Markus Schäfer, Member of the Divisional Board of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Production and Supply Chain Management, said in a statement.

Russia had long been seen by major global automakers as a growth market with huge potential. However, new projects were put on hold in 2014, when the conflict in Ukraine and resulting international sanctions coincided with a sharp slump in the Russian economy.

Sanctions did not forbid investments in the auto sector, but caused a general chill in investor sentiment, and also threw up practical complications because financial transactions had to be restructured to avoid banks subject to sanctions.

General Motors (GM.N) pulled out of Russia. Other automakers sales fell dramatically.

However, a slide in the value of Russia's rouble currency has also reduced automakers' local production costs, and in the past few months some producers have seen the decline in their sales slow. Ford (F.N) was the first major foreign carmaker whose sales returned to growth.

Daimler already builds trucks in central Russia in partnership with local manufacturer Kamaz, but until now has not had any passenger vehicle manufacturing in Russia.

The decision to build the new factory shows a global automaker has "faith in the Russian market, regardless of short-term circumstances," Alexander Morozov, Russia's deputy minister for trade and industry, was quoted as saying in a statement.

"It is a sign of the obvious attractiveness of Russia's auto industry to investors," Morozov said.

(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov and Edward Taylor; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)