Kopřivnice - Czech heavy truck manufacturer Tatra will jump on the emerging markets bandwagon. The company wants to fight its way back into the black by exporting cars to new markets - above all to Russia, but also to India, Brazil, South East Asia and Saudi Arabia. In addition, Tatra plans to sell cars to Australia and Canada.
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In the last two years, the company has reported a loss of CZK 1.3 billion (EUR 50 million). In addition, in March 2010, Tatra had to mortgage itself to borrow more than CZK one billion from banks.
"Struggle for survival"
In the yearly report, Director General Ronald Adams said that the crisis year of 2009 delivered a hard blow to the sector of truck production in general, and to Tatra itself, which found itself in probably the most serious financial situation in the last 50 years.
"It was really a struggle for survival," Adams said. In 2009, Tatra had to lay off 1.400 people, reducing the total number of its employees to 2.300. However, in the last weeks, the company has started to hire again.
Military vehicles too
Although the car producer has its seat in Kopřivnice, Moravian-Silesian Region, Tatra cars designated for the Russian market are going to be produced in on of the ex-USSR states, possibly in Russia itself.
At the same time, Tatra has made an analysis of the Latin American market possibilities. "We are convinced there is a market for 400-1.000 trucks and also military vehicles, which will develop itself in the near future," Adams said.
Currently, Tatra focuses on heavy off-road trucks and cars used for combined off-road and on-road travel.
In 2009, Tatra continued developing and testing its own electronic gear box and successfully tested its new cars with fully automatic gear boxes. It will start to produce these cars already this year.
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In addition, Tatra cooperates with US producer of military vehicles Navistar Defense. The two companies jointly develop a military vehicle for Canadian military.
