Czech truck producer Tatra will assemble vehicles in Brazil and Saudi Arabia, and possibly also in Russia.
CEO of the truck producer Tatra, Ronald Adams, announced on Tuesday that the company has signed strategic partnership deals to set up assembly lines in Brazil and Saudi Arabia for both military and civilian vehicles. The company is also in negotiations with Dutch truck producer DAF on establishing a partnership in Russia.
Speaking on the first day of the 11th International Exhibition of Defense and Security Technologies (IDET) trade fair in Brno on Tuesday, Adams announced that the firm based in Kopřivnice, Moravian-Silesia region, concluded the contract to assemble Tatra trucks in Brazil three weeks ago, the server iHNed.cz reported. More……
This month, Tatra will anoounce their new series of trucks with DAF CF cabins. Nine prototypes are around, being tested at the Polygon and nearby roads. The T 815 cabin production line will be dismantled, being designed for the huge numbers in the communist era, and not the present numbers. On a much smaller scale, for spare parts production, the T 815 cabins will be continued to be built in Prague.
Most probably other activities will stop soon as well. The Jamal, with a modified T 815 cabin, will be stopped as will be Tara’s engine production.
As foreseen for quite some time, Tatra will concentrate on its unique chassis concept.
For the home non-military market, Tatra hopes to built 350 new Tatra-Dafs (DAF-Tatras) to supply its dealers and atract interest from their old clientele, the roadconstruction people. Negotiations who will fince this batch of trucks are still going on, Tatra itself heavily debtened.
Prague, Nov 21 (CTK) – It was the whole Czech government that unanimously approved all of the military orders that are now raising doubts for the alleged corruption of Martin Bartak as former deputy defence minister, Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek (TOP 09) said yesterday. More……..
PRAGUE — Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas called Friday for a thorough and quick investigation into allegations by the former U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, who has accused the country’s former defence minister of asking for a bribe.
William Cabaniss was quoted in Friday’s edition of the major newspaper Mlada Fronta Dnes as saying Martin Bartak asked for money during a February 2008 meeting near Washington D.C., where Bartak was with an official Czech delegation.
Bartak was then deputy defence minister; he later served as defence minister and currently is deputy finance minister, in charge of fighting corruption.
Necas said he considered the allegations “serious” because the scandal could harm the country’s relations with a close ally.
“A thorough investigation has to be carried out and must be done quickly,” Necas said.
Bartak denied any wrongdoing in a statement Friday and called the allegations “absurd.”
He said had been given an unpaid leave at his request because he didn’t want the scandal to damage the government.
“I am sure I will be able to return to work soon,” Bartak said. He said he planned to take unspecified legal action against those who are behind the campaign against him.
The major opposition Social Democrats called on Necas Friday to fire Bartak immediately.
Cabaniss, ambassador to Prague in 2003-06, has been chairman of the supervisory board of Czech truck maker Tatra AS. Cabaniss said Bartak offered him his help to solve the company’s dispute with its supplier Praga, which threatened a $150 million deal for Tatra to deliver trucks for Czech military.
“At some point of the conversation he said for certain amount of money, I don’t remember the exact amount, the problems between Tatra and Praga can be solved,” Cabaniss was quoted as saying.
“I didn’t respond. I thought it was a very unusual and out of order conversation from someone at the defence ministry,” Cabaniss was quoted as saying in the newspaper interview. “I walked away and had no further conversation with him.”
Duncan Sellars, the chief of Tatra’s U.S. branch, who was also present at the meeting, said Bartak asked for several million dollars.
Cabaniss was not available for comment Friday, Tatra spokesman Vladimir Bystrov said. He said Cabaniss and Sellars have co-operated with local police and testified Thursday.
The defence ministry has been under increasing fire recently for non-transparent ways of acquiring military equipment.
Necas said his government will stop such practices.
Among other cases, Czech authorities asked the United States in August to help with a corruption inquiry into a lucrative 2002 deal to buy 24 JAS-39 Gripen jet fighters from BAE Systems.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/14/embassy-row-583058910/
Last year Ronald Adams announced that Tatra will concentrate on chassis technology and would buy other parts as developing bthemselves is too costly. The latest is now that negotiations are proceeding well with DAF, the Paccar owned Dutch truckbuilder. Officially it has not been confirmed by Tatra, but management member on behalf of the unions, Pavel Baron, said that Tatra hoped to get their long-standing customers back when offering a new cabin. Baron’s idea that the last batch of sacked workers might return to Tatra next year, once new orderswere welcomed by Tatra, might be based on his idea that a new cabin would attract new customers.
Czech: http://hn.ihned.cz/c1-47474260-tatra-chce-karoserie-od-firmy-daf
Tatra manufactured 648 trucks in Q1-3 2010, a rise of 5,88% compared to 2009.
http://ekonomika.ihned.cz/
By: Lubomir Sedlak, Friday, October 08, 2010, AutomotiveWorld.com
Czech truck maker Tatra, which planned to make redundant 167 workers before end of this year, gave in to the company’s trade union and has promised to 91 of the workers in writing that by June 2011 at the latest it will take them back at the same wage as now.
Union chairman Pavel Baron told local daily Právo that as far as demand for Tatra’s lorries goes, next year should be slightly better than what it had looked like a month ago. The first workers should leave the company in November 2010, he added.
