MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Alexander Yurov) - Russian truck manufacturers have recently made some strenuous efforts to find new markets for their heavy-duty trucks. And they have enjoyed some success.
Third-world countries used to buy Soviet trucks regularly. But with the dawn of perestroika Russia virtually lost large markets in Asia and Africa and now producers have to start from scratch. This is all the more true, given that Russia's potential accession to the WTO means Russian businessmen have to look for new markets.
Representatives of Mexico's business circles recently visited the Ural automobile plant in the Russian city of Miass. The businessmen saw the entire family of Ural trucks, both military and civilian. It seems they liked them, because talks they held on supplies reached the stage of studying financial schemes for importing the vehicles.
Miass manufacturers have a long-standing relationship with Mexico. "Every year about 30 trucks are shipped to Mexico, and all of them are used in the armed forces," plant spokesman Dmitry Fedechkin said. "Experts from Russia even worked in Mexico for several years to ensure the technical maintenance of the trucks. Now civilian organizations are also displaying an interest in Russian automobiles."
In fact, Ural trucks are very popular in Latin America, while the Russian manufacturers also have good partnership relations with businessmen in Chili and the military in Uruguay. Success in Latin America is explained by the fact that the all-wheel Ural was designed for tough terrain, which is not surprising given that it was originally designed for the Russian army. But today it has become versatile and is used in hard conditions and in regions that are difficult to access, such as the north, Siberia and tundra forests.
One of the vehicle's huge plus points is that weather is simply not a problem. "No matter if it is cold or hot - the main thing is that it works where it is really hard," Fedechkin said. "Our plant was recently visited by Alexei Moskovsky, a first deputy defense minister, who summed up the truck in a military way. 'It's a front-line vehicle', he said."
If legislation were less strict in Brazil and Argentina, Ural would go to those countries as well, but tough customs regulations mean Russian vehicles are priced out of the market. Ural, like other Russian automobiles, may lose out in comfort to foreign automobiles, but is unrivalled in offroad qualities. The recent European trial competitions, where the Ural truck won the European championship, proved this again.
Truck trials are a test not only for the vehicle itself but also for drivers' skills, as they seek to overcome natural and artificial obstacles on a specially selected route. Promising designs are tested in extreme conditions, and a successful race gives the truck's image a boost and helps promote it.
Therefore, in technical terms Russian automobiles remain competitive on the world markets. When tenders were held in Uruguay, the Russian truck ran against world famous producers, Mercedes, Man and even its "compatriot" Kamaz. Ural did not look like an outsider, and in many of its indices even stole a march on the world-renowned brands.
However, it is not only this truck that Russia will put on show overseas. Another Russian automobile plant - GAZ - will supply 7,500 trucks to Turkey by the end of this year. The first 1,000 of these trucks have already been sold to that country. Although the contract was only signed recently, it is known that 15,000 trucks are to be delivered to Turkey within three years. The GAZ move away from its previous small shipments to Turkey fits in with plans to export over 50,000 GAZ trucks across the world.
Generally speaking, Russian trucks are cheaper than their foreign rivals in the same class. Besides, they are undemanding and, most importantly, easy to maintain. In fact, the army normally asks for a vehicle that is simple and can be repaired in the field.
