Romanian Truck Maker Presents Production Achievements

Text of report in English by Romanian news agency Rompres

Bucharest, 9 August: Roman plant of Brasov supplied to Iraq 600 trucks of various kinds – for fire-fighters, rubbish, water or fuel transport – following electronic tenders won with the Defence Department of the United States for the reconstruction of Iraq, the manager for foreign relations of the plant, Tiberiu Klein, said on Thursday 9 August.

“It is about 13 contracts, of which we have supplied 60 [as received] trucks so far, worth 51 million euros. Due to the export to Iraq we have succeeded to have relations in the entire Gulf area,” Klein also said.

According to him, Roman plant is at present close to the conclusion of a servicing contract for trucks in Kuwait and Bahrain, and is negotiating a similar contract for Dubai. Officials of the plant are participating in tenders with the US Army for Iraq and Afghanistan, with the latter a new market for the truck maker in Brasov, 161 km north-west of Bucharest. “There are a few hundred trucks, part of them for the transport and protection of troops in mined areas; some others are riot armoured carriers,” Klein said.

Along with trucks, Roman plant also manufactures buses for urban and inter-urban transport produced in cooperation with El-Car. The general manger of El-Car, Dorian Igescu, presented on Thursday the first five buses, 12 metres long, of a series of 10 of this type, which have been homologated in conformity with European standards. Smaller busses are also being manufactured.

Tenders will be held this month for the production of 150 buses for urban transport and 120 ones for inter-urban transport, which are 12 metres long, for the domestic market but orders are expected to be issued for Venezuela, Greece, Israel and Egypt, Igescu said.

The cost of a bus 12 metres long is 140,000-160,000 euros and of a smaller bus some 70,000 euros.

The products manufactured by Roman plant were presented on Thursday on the occasion of the Open Gates Day organized by the plant’s management for journalists from the local press and correspondents of the central press in Brasov. The journalists were invited to visit part of the plant. Roman plant currently employs 1,300 people. It went private in 2004.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring European. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.