MOSCOW, March 20 (Reuters) - The world's second largest truck maker, Sweden's Volvo , and Russian holding Sistema on Thursday began truck production in a Moscow suburb.
"Russia has become the 15th country where we have opened truck production," Lars Corneliusson, Volvo general director for Russia, told a news conference. "We expect the market to grow."
He said the plant, in Zelenograd north of Moscow, would produce heavy towing vehicles and dump trucks.
The new firm is 66-percent owned by Volvo and 34-percent by Sistema.
"I do not think we shall stop at this, because we are already discussing plans to develop production, servicing and dealers' networks in the Urals and in Siberia as well as producing assembly parts in Russia," Sistema head Yevgeny Yevtushenkov said.
So far, all assembly parts are imported.
Yevtushenkov said the plant would produce 250 vehicles this year.
"Further production will depend on orders. I...hope we shall increase production by several times," Yevtushenkov said.