MTZ wants workers to hide “excess” tractors

Managers of the plant invented a new method of how to unload storage areas.

They propose that the plant workers store unsold tractors that spoil the statistics. Dzianis Tsikhanenka wrote this on his Facebook account.

“MTZ workers were offered to take tractors for safekeeping to their summer houses, the grandmother's cottage in the country, a garage or a parking lot. It was just a proposal. But a strong one,” he writes.

Representatives of the Minsk Tractor Plant (MTZ) refused to comment on the situation to charter97.org and said the plant had no problems with marketing. The press service says the information about 20,000 tractors in the plant's storage area is “rumours and fiction”.

An MTZ worker said in May about serious problems with tractor sales.

“More than 20,000 tractors can be seen in the territory of the plant and in the village of Abchak. Tractors stand everywhere, even on pedestrian paths, in the territory of the plant. People had to squeeze through unsold vehicles. The Google Maps pictures, which were recently published on the website, were taken last year. They are old. Now the entire area of the plant is filled with tractors. Old workers say the situation was better even in the turbulent 1990s,” the worker says.

Overstock at plants raises serious concerns of the authorities. In May, head of the Minks city executive committee Mikalai Ladutska severely criticised Minsk officials over the problem.

According to him, the city failed to fulfil the tasks of the social and economic development in the last four months. The region's gross product was 42.6 trillion rubles. The region goes behind the plans on industrial output, product exports and capital investments.

Significant finished goods stocks poses a great danger to economy of enterprises.

Lukashenka recently proposed his idea of struggling with stocks of the country's automotive giants. He ordered to unload stocks by selling vehicles to collective farms at a discount of 30%.

A number of Belarusian plants, including MAZ, had to work four days a week since the early spring due to absence of demand for their products.