Business news

15 Apr 2019

Belarusian tractor assembly enterprise in Turkey expected to start working in July

KIRIKKALE, 15 April (BelTA) – The construction of an enterprise to assemble Belarusian tractors in the Turkish city of Kirikkale is nearly over. The enterprise is supposed to start working in July, BelTA has learned.

Kirikkale is located 80km away from Ankara. The construction of industrial facilities goes on vigorously outside the city. The place had some space to spare for manufacturing Belarusian products. The assembly of MTZ tractors is supposed to begin there in a couple of months.

The decision to build the enterprise to assemble MTZ tractors was made with assistance of Ganja Automobile Plant (Azerbaijan), which has cooperated with Belarusian MTZ for many years already. A special tractor compliant with Euro 4 emission standards has been developed for the Turkish market.

MTZ Director General Fyodor Domotenko told media: “Environmental standards in Turkey are much tougher than those in Belarus. We sell Euro 2 products to Russia. Belarus uses Euro 2 as well. We sell Euro 6 tractors to Europe. This is why a new Euro 4 compliant tractor model based on MTZ 1221 has been developed.”

In his words, starting the proprietary production of tractors in Turkey was very expensive for Belarus. Support of Ganja Automobile Plant came in handy. Thanks to tight relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan the company saved about $1 million on one building alone.

It is profitable for Belarus to cooperate with Turkey using this scheme. MTZ will still continue supplying assembly kits to Ganja Automobile Plant but only more of them. Ganja Automobile Plant will work with them and ship the products for final assembly to Kirikkale. “Logistics looks complicated, but thanks to the preferences Azerbaijani companies enjoy in Turkey, the scheme is profitable. Our sales will rise,” Fyodor Domotenko noted.

The total area of the Turkish enterprise is 7,000m2. Only half of it is under the roof right now, but the enterprise will be opened by 1 July. Delegations from Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Turkey arrived in Kirikkale to take a look at intermediate results of the work. The Belarusian side was represented by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Lyashenko. The Turkish side was represented by Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli.

Fyodor Domotenko said: “This year we intend to make 100 tractors and 200 ones the next one. We intend to increase the output up to 2,000 later on. The enterprise will be capable of assembling up to 3,000 tractors per annum. We just need the personnel for it.”

Specialists of MTZ and Ganja Automobile Plant will train the local workers in Turkey. MTZ sent three representatives. “We are going to teach them the main tunings, tractor maintenance and tractor driving. They are very knowledgeable specialists. It is a pleasure working with them,” Aleksandr Zhavrid, an MTZ representative, said.

According to MTZ Senior Process Engineer Artyom Bulgakov, there are certain peculiarities in MTZ tractor assembly. “First of all, we need to show the sequence of actions. We demonstrate it as an example and they repeat it,” the MTZ representative noted.