The KAZ factory began in 1929 as an agricultural repair shop in the town of Klintsy, Bryansk province, a Russian enclave near the border between Belarus to the north and Ukraine to the south. Moscow is 300 miles to the east.
The company’s output has grown with the Russian construction equipment economy from a low of 18 units in 1999 to about 1,000 seven years later.
The company now makes three units of 25t-capacity crane. A basic model costs about RUB 4.25m (EUR 117,000). The company stopped producing a 16-tonner in January 2007, but has brought it back as a taxi crane by popular demand.
The company has launched a 40t model with four-section, 34m boom earlier this year, and showed it at September’s ConExpo Russia show. It is planning to begin manufacturing of U-shaped booms in November for the 40t crane.
The plant makes its own hydraulic cylinders, metal fabrications, slewing gears and other parts in Klintsy. The plant employs 1,300 people. It also sources components from Italy and Germany. It mounts cranes on KamAZ, MAZ and URAL Russian commercial trucks.
The company will also make U-booms for a 50t-capacity model made by the Galich mobile crane factory in Kostroma province, north of Gorky. Both companies are represented by sales and marketing agent Kudesnik, which also has owned the largest shareholding of the Galich mobile crane plant since 1997. Both plants have their own dealer and service networks. Klintsy also sells direct.
