Over 2,000 Lada cars were sold last year in Germany which is the second largest export market for AvtoVAZ's Lada brand.

The carmaker plans to increase exports by 50 percent this year. Lada exported 18,500 vehicles last year.

Earlier this month, AvtoVAZ started exporting vehicles to China and the United Arab Emirates. The company wants to have a slice of the Middle East market.

It already has a stable market share in CIS countries and also exports cars to Germany, Iran, Syria, Egypt, and Hungary. AvtoVAZ intends to expand to the Czech Republic, Mongolia, and South-East Asia.

A new assembly line at the manufacturer’s plant in Kazakhstan will make 120,000 vehicles a year. Besides the Lada 4x4, the plant assembles the Lada Granta and Lada Kalina models with plans to build the new Lada Vesta and Lada Xray models.

The largest car manufacturer in Russia and Eastern Europe, AvtoVaz produces nearly one million vehicles a year. In 2012 AvtoVaz created an alliance with Renault-Nissan and started assembling the Renault Logan, Datsun and Nissan Almera models in Russia.

“Our preference long term is to grow in oil and copper, then possibly potash,” the firm’s chief executive officer Andrew Mackenzie said when releasing first half of the year results Tuesday.

BHP seems to be in no rush to advance its massive $2.6 billion Jansen potash project in Canada’s Saskatchewan province. For years the company has been sinking shafts and installing some infrastructure on site, but has not fully committed itself to the project, nor received board approval for the mine.

BHP’s massive $2.6 billion Jansen potash project in Canada’s Saskatchewan province is now 64% complete.
On Tuesday, the company showed once again how slowly the project is advancing by saying it is now 64% complete (it was already 60% along six months ago).

“Excavation and lining of the shafts are steadily progressing," according to BHP’s results for the first half of the 2017 financial year. It added that the engineering contract for feasibility studies for stage 1 of the project had been awarded.

When the work is completed – at the current pace towards the end of 2019 – Jansen would still be nowhere near a producing mine. That is expected to happen sometime “in the decade beyond 2020,” BHP has said.

But once and if and if that finally happens, Jansen would be a game-changer in the potash industry, as it is expected to generate 8 million tonnes of crop nutrient a year, which would amount to nearly 15% of the world's total.

Prices for fertilizers began their decline five years ago as weak crop prices and currency declines pinched demand forcing producers to lay off employees and close operations.

Prices have also suffered from increased competition following the breakup in 2013 of a Russian-Belarusian marketing cartel that previously helped limit supply.

And while they have slightly recovered this month, a potential move by the Indian government to cut potash subsidies by 17% in the next financial year would hit demand from one of the world's largest importers of the fertilizer, inevitably dragging prices down.

The yield declined and the price of the bonds due in 2022 rose more than 4 cents by 1:50 p.m in Hong Kong, after the news of a $440 IMF million loan package as part of a $5.5 billion bailout. The tugrik was little changed at 2,482 per dollar compared to 2,483 on Friday.

Mongolia’s sixth IMF bailout since 1990 follows a downturn in prices for copper and coal, the two main export commodities. The budget deficit soared and disputes with investors including Rio Tinto Plc led to a collapse in foreign investment and depleted foreign exchange reserves.

The IMF’s Extended Fund Facility will support the Economic Stabilization Program, a long-term plan to tighten fiscal policy, diversify the economy, depoliticize the Development Bank of Mongolia and strengthen governance at the central bank. The facility will also help Mongolia repay looming debts, including a $580 million DBM bond due next month.

After that bond, the nation has $641 million due next year, for a total of $2.2 billion to be repaid, according to Keiko Utsunomiya, a spokeswoman for the IMF.

Mongolia is keen to avoid the boom-bust-bailout cycle it’s experienced in recent years, the IMF Mission Chief for Mongolia, Koshy Mathai, said in an interview on Sunday with Bloomberg Mongolia TV.

Gross domestic product is expected to expand eight percent by 2019, and then grown at around five to six percent after that due to new mining projects and output from the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine.

“Asking that Mongolia’s economic growth be stable forever is a very big challenge because there are so many mining exports and so many concentrated to one particular market," said Mathai. "That is why the government has emphasized many of these institutional reforms in order to make sure that fiscal policy remains strong."

On 20th of February, Ts.Munkh-Orgil concluded an agreement with Foreign Minister Wang Yi. During the meeting, the two sides agreed to organise a visit of the Prime Minister of Mongolia to Beijing, a second Mongolia-Chinese parliamentary meeting and a first cooperation meeting on Energy, Mineral and Infrastructure.

China has also extended he swap agreement with the Mongolian Central Bank and signed an agreement on transit transportation for sea freight.

This would encompass a capacity nomination regime and long term tariff structures. It is expected that the Erdenet to Ovoot Railway users will become the largest users of UBTZ rail services over time.

Commercial agreement will also be needed in respect of UBTZ’s traffic management and line maintenance capabilities as well as cooperating on the rehabilitation of the Erdenet to Salkhit spur line that connects onto the main line. This is a 164 km line that has limited capacity availability to absorb the substantially higher capacity that will be required to service the Erdenet to Ovoot Railway users and will require significant rehabilitation over time.

In August 2015, Northern Railways LLC was granted an exclusive 30 year concession by the Mongolian Government to build and operate the Erdenet to Ovoot Railway. Northern Railways LLC is a Mongolian registered rail infrastructure company, mandated to pursue the development of the Erdenet to Ovoot Railway, and is supported by a consortium consisting of Aspire Mining, and subsidiaries of fortune 500 listed China Railway Construction Corporation.

The Erdenet to Ovoot Railway extends 549 km between the town of Erdenet to Aspire Mining company’s Ovoot Project, which connects northern Mongolia to China and international markets. In accordance with Mongolian National Rail Policy, the Erdenet to Ovoot Railway is a multi-user rail line and will be available for the transport of bulk materials, agricultural and general freight from the region to export markets including China, Russia and seaborne markets.

Northern Railways LLC is progressing funding negotiations for the completion of a bankable feasibility study and other studies to support applications for licenses, permits and approvals, as well as progressing negotiations for the EPC contract and financing of the railway construction.

Vice President Li Yuanchao expressed his confidence that the visit by Mongolia’s Foreign Minister will contribute to strengthening mutual political trust and progressing bilateral ties. In return, the Foreign Minister noted that developing friendly relations with China is a main direction in Mongolia’s foreign policy, and that Mongolia attaches a great significance to bilateral strategic partnership. He invited the Vice President to pay a visit to Mongolia at his convenience.

During the meeting with Chairperson Fu Ying, sides agreed that the establishment of a regular parliamentary exchange mechanism between Mongolia and China was crucial to cooperation between the law-making bodies of the two countries, and a joint meeting of the mechanism should be held in the near future.

Foreign Minister Ts.Munkh-Orgil and Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng exchanged views, and agreed on enforcing Mongolia-China trade and economic cooperation, carrying through agreements reached on high level, organizing a meeting of the working group of Mongolia-China intergovernmental commission, intensifying the task to establish a joint border region, accelerating the implementation of projects funded by non-refundable aids and soft loans, and organizing trainings and seminars under Silk Road Fund and Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank. The Chinese side expressed its readiness to work towards expanding bilateral financial ties at this time of economic difficulty in Mongolia.