AvtoVAZ will produce 332,000 cars this year, a 59 percent drop from the carmaker’s output in 2008, Interfax cited a source as saying on Tuesday.

Speaking at a meeting with regional officials and suppliers, acting president Igor Komarov said the company planned to produce 120,000 Ladas and 33,000 cars for export, the source said.

An AvtoVAZ spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the figures. A source at the plant said the planned output still stood at about 400,000 cars, as previously planned.

Inventories may climb to 145,000 cars by the end of the year, Komarov said at the meeting, RIA-Novosti quoting a source as saying. AvtoVAZ said earlier this month that it would suspend all of its production on Aug. 1 for one month to sell some of its inventories.

Parts makers for AvtoVAZ, who were present at the meeting, were able to extract promises of help from the local governments.

Vladislav Kapustin, Samara region’s minister of industry, ordered AvtoVAZ to send a list of the names of key suppliers to the regional government, which would then help the parts makers get refinancing for their loans.

Pleas for AvtoVAZ to give priority in component orders to local producers fell on deaf ears, however. Samara Governor Vladimir Artyakov told the suppliers that AvtoVAZ wasn’t obliged to buy only Russian-made parts.