The Kremenchug KrAZ plant during its existence has experienced a lot - the war, the endless reorganization of the machine-building industry, crises, and management shifts. Even this company has two birth dates. The plant managed to stay afloat even in the difficult 90s. Today, KrAZ is one of the largest automotive industries in Ukraine.
The history of the KrAZ plant: the enterprise in 30-40. last century
To build KrAZ, like many other industrial giants, the Soviet government decided in the 30s of the past century. The location of the new enterprise was chosen a small city Kremenchug, Poltava region. Initially, the plant was designed for the production of sophisticated aircraft. However, these grandiose plans of the Soviet government, unfortunately, were not destined to come true. The Second World War began. The construction of the plant had to be frozen for several years.
Bridge production
After the war ended, they decided to change the profile of the future enterprise. Among other things, the destroyed country needed to restore many bridges that were blown up during the fighting. The new Kremenchug enterprise launched its first span products in 1948. For the next eight years, the KrAZ plant specialized only in the production of bridges. For all this time, more than six hundred similar structures were assembled here, the total length of which was 27 km.
Harvesters
Over time, the country began to gradually recover, and the priority was the task of raising agriculture. In 1956, the Kremenchug plant was again decided to reprofile. This time the enterprise was transferred to the Ministry of Agricultural and Tractor Engineering. Since that time, the KrAZ plant (Ukraine) began to produce combines for the collection of corn. Although this culture in the country did not receive much popularity and was soon almost completely forgotten, the enterprise managed to supply farms with more than 11 thousand units of similar equipment.
In addition to combines, the plant during these years also produced beet loaders, spreaders, tractor wheels and road rollers.
First cars
The next turning point in the history of the enterprise, in fact, which was its second birth, was 1958. It was then that the leadership of the USSR decided to transfer the capacities of the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant to Kremenchug. Thus, the company survived another, this time last, reconstruction and switched to the production of heavy three-axle trucks. At the same time, the Yaroslavl plant was redesigned for the manufacture of power units.
The first Dnepr-222 car rolled off the assembly line in 1959. It was a ten-ton dump truck with a two-stroke engine manufactured by the Yaroslavl plant. The design of this powerful motor was developed by engineers on the basis of the YAZ-214 and 219. The name "Dnepr" was subsequently decided not to save the name Dnepr. Dump trucks produced in Kremenchug received the traditional Soviet marking ending in AZ.
Machines for export
In the 60s and afterwards, the Kremenchug plant was engaged in the production of only actually heavy KrAZ trucks. In 1960, the equipment manufactured at this enterprise was exported for the first time. At this time, the plant began to assemble, including truck modifications, designed to work in tropical regions. Competition in Western markets at that time was quite high. Having missed something, you could lose customers for many years. However, this, fortunately, did not happen. Trucks produced by the Kremenchug plant began to enjoy enormous popularity in many countries. They were delivered, for example, to China, India, Afghanistan, Argentina. Also, the equipment of this brand was exported from the USSR and to Finland. At first, the KrAZ plant supplied abroad about 500 vehicles a year. By the 70s, this figure had grown to several thousand.
Particularly in Soviet times, Ukrainian-made trucks in hot tropical countries were valued. Western “flimsy” equipment, unlike KrAZ, often simply could not stand the specific climatic conditions of such regions.
Truck upgrades
The first new KrAZ modification left the assembly line in 1965. It was a powerful car, modern for that time, equipped with a five-speed gearbox and an improved YaMZ-238 engine, marked 257. It produced such trucks from the KrAZ plant until 1995.
In 1978, in parallel with KrAZ-257, the company began production of a modification of the truck with the marking 250. In 1979, they decided to improve this model. As a result, the KrAZ-260 off-road modification with a 6 × 6 wheel arrangement came off the assembly line. It was this car that became the ancestor of the modern family of Kremenchug dump trucks, tractors and SUVs.
AvtoKrAZ
In order to increase the number of trucks produced in 1976, the USSR government decided to create the AvtoKrAZ production association. In addition to the Kremenchug plant, it included several more giants of the country's engineering industry. In the future, such a reorganization really paid off and allowed to significantly increase truck production in the country. Together with Kremenchugsky, the association included the following plants:
Also part of AvtoKrAZ was the Simferopol Autopilot Plant. In subsequent years, the following enterprises were additionally included in the association :
It was on the basis of all these enterprises that the KrAZ -260V car, an extremely popular off-road tractor, began to be produced in the country . This powerful truck subsequently for many years became the standard of quality, including for western competitors.
Factory today
In 1996, the AvtoKrAZ association was reorganized into a holding. In 1999, it was bought out by the joint Ukrainian-German company Mega-Motoros. In 2002, based on the holding, the Trading House of AutoKraz Holding Company was established. Currently, the holding is registered as a public joint stock company.
Volumes of production in the 90s at the plant, of course, significantly decreased. For a long time, the enterprise did not work at full capacity. However, at the beginning of the millennium, the situation at the plant began to gradually stabilize. Currently, work in Kremenchug is in full swing, and the enterprise uses most of its capacities. Trucks are currently produced in a wide variety of modifications. For example, in the first half of 2016 alone, the company's sales amounted to 618 million hryvnias. In 2017, the plant plans to produce at least 1,200 cars. Of course, in comparison with Soviet times, this figure is not particularly large. For example, in 1986, 30,655 vehicles left the assembly line of the plant. However, the pace of production at the plant continues to increase as before.
In what areas of the national economy are the products of the enterprise used
The main products manufactured by AvtoKrAZ PJSC today are dump trucks. It is this kind of heavy equipment in our time that is most in demand in the national economy of Ukraine and most other countries. The company also produces:
On the chassis assembled at the enterprise, complex equipment of the mining industry, oil and gas, utilities, road services and even emergency response can be installed .
Military equipment
The KrAZ plant (Kremenchug) specializes today not only in the production of trucks designed for peaceful civilian purposes. Two-and three-axle military vehicles are also being assembled at this plant, which were adopted by the army in Ukraine itself and in other countries of the world.
In 2011, the company launched the first all-terrain vehicle KrAZ-5233 "Special Forces" . The plant also supplies the market with:
airborne KrAZ-6322 "Soldier";
KrAZ chassis for military equipment (63221, 6322 and 5233HE);
KrAZ military tractors (6443 and 6446).
The advantages of military equipment manufactured by the enterprise, including its special soot layout. Thanks to this design, the degree of protection of the crew is significantly increased. In the event of a collision with a mine, the front axle is destroyed. At the same time, people in the cabin remain stunned, but still alive.
Modern modifications
The carrying capacity of vehicles manufactured today at PJSC AvtoKrAZ may be 13-22 tons. The most popular among consumers are KrAZ-6510, 65055, 71334 and 65032 dump trucks manufactured at the enterprise . Their technical characteristics can be found in the table below.
KrAZ dump trucksModification KrAZ | Wheel formula | Payload (tons) | Body volume (m 3 ) |
6510 | 6 x 4 | 13.5 | 8 |
65055 | 6 x 4 | 16 | 10.5 |
65032 | 6 x 6 | 18 | 12 |
7133C4 | 8 x 4 | 22 | 20 |
Also at KrAZ (Kremenchug Automobile Plant) , the popular VARZ-0192 semi-trailer tipper semi-trailer is produced . It is usually delivered with the KrAZ-6443054 tractor. The characteristics of this pair are as follows:
Instead of a conclusion
For several decades, AvtoKrAZ trucks have been very popular both in the Ukrainian market and abroad. Their consumers purchase it quite willingly. However, the holding's management, of course, is not going to stop there. In order for the company to flourish further, the trucks it produces, of course, must always remain competitive. Therefore, work in Kremenchug on improving heavy equipment is ongoing. The result of the efforts of the management, engineers and other specialists of KrAZ was that the plant recently conquers an increasingly large part of the global market for heavy equipment.