Production of "punto" starts again

Production of "punto" in "Zastava", which has been discontinued due to the fire that damaged the conveyor belt for transfer of automobile bodies and part of the assembly line in the Automobile factory, will be resumed tomorrow (November 24, 2009). Although the damaged conveyor belt has not been replaced yet, the workers of "Zastava" will be moving automobile bodies manually from the lacquer shop to the line for finishing works in the assembling process.

The Director General of "Zastava vozila" Group, Zoran Radojević, told "Beta" agency that the trial production had started in the Kragujevac-based automobile factory that day, and that the assembly-line production "at full steam" would begin the next day.

It is expected that few tens of "punto" vehicles will be manufactured and assembled in the Automobile factory every day. Since the end of March, when the production of "punto" commenced, until November 14th, when the production was discontinued because of the fire, nearly 12,000 automobiles of that model were manufactured in the factory, over 11,000 of which have already been sold in the local market. In addition to the conveyor belt for transfer of automobile bodies, the fire also damaged about 700 square meters of the assembly line, about 200 square meters of the factory roof were burnt, and nine "punto" bodies were destroyed. According to unofficial estimates, the fire caused the material damage of over 1m EUR. Reconstruction of the damaged part of the assembly line will, most probably, start today.

As "Danas" learns, Automobile factory "Zastava" should be visited tomorrow by the Minister of Economy, Mlađan Dinkić, the Minister of National Investment Plan, Verica Kalanović, and the representatives of Chinese national company "Bridges and Roads", with which the pre-contract for construction of Southern bypass around Kragujevac and tunnels on that road 1.5 km long may be signed today. That project, worth about 30m EUR, represents one of the contracting obligations of the state and the city of Kragujevac towards "Fiat".

FCA Srbija Kragujevac

Zastava automobili a.d. Kragujevac

Ministarstvo privrede Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo privrede Republike Srbije

Grupa Zastava vozila

Fca S.p.A. Italija

Fiat automobili Srbija

Fiat

Zastava

punto

Ministry of Economy

Mlađan Dinkić

Ministry of National Investment Plan

Ministry of NIP

NIP

National Investment Plan

Verica Kalanović

Bridges and Roads

Southern bypass around Kragujevac

Zoran Radojević

Zastava vozila