Press releases

Harsewinkel/Tashkent;   CLAAS has started to assemble combine harvesters at a new plant in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. It is planned that tractors and balers will also be produced in future. The contracts for a joint venture between the Uzbek company Tashkent Traktor Zavodi and CLAAS subsidiary CLAAS Central Asia Investment GmbH have been signed and the new company is called UZ CLAAS Agro.

New production commences. Assembly of CLAAS combines for the Uzbek market has started in a new manufacturing facility in Tashkent.

The joint venture involves the local assembly of components from CLAAS plants into finished machines (DOMINATOR combine harvester, AXOS tractors and MARKANT balers) for the Uzbek agricultural sector. No job losses are planned in Germany as a result.

The first containers of combine harvester parts have been sent to Uzbekistan from various CLAAS sites. The machine parts arrived in Uzbekistan for final assembly on-site in time for the 2010 harvest.

Over 500 machines are scheduled for assembly this year in Uzbekistan. The German and Uzbek partners are aiming to continuously increase deliveries. Assembly capacity in Uzbekistan will also be gradually extended and vertical integration will be increased.

Dieter Düringer, General Manager of CLAAS Central Asia Investment GmbH, commented: "CLAAS has had a good relationship with Uzbekistan since 1993 and has supplied the country with over 1000 combine harvesters in recent years. The new joint venture is both a result of this good business relationship and a vote of confidence, which will allow us to bring other agricultural machinery products such as tractors to Uzbekistan in the future. It will also enable us to serve neighbouring markets from Uzbekistan."

A happy customer in Uzbekistan takes delivery of one of the first combines to be built in the new assembly plant in Tashkent.

The usable agricultural area of Uzbekistan is approximately 47,000 square kilometres, making up roughly 10.5 % of the country's total surface area. Until now, the majority of the land area (approx. 80 %) has been used for cotton production, but this share has reduced in recent years in favour of grain production.

Joint venture partner OAO Taschkentskij Traktornij Zavod specialise in the production of tractors and trailers for the agricultural sector. The company produced over 2700 tractors and almost 1700 trailers in 2009. The production programme also includes excavators and road maintenance machines based on the TTZ tractors and trailers for passenger car and container transport. The company employs 3000 staff and traditionally exports to the countries of Central Asia which specialise in cotton production.

You will find pictures on our website:
www.claas.com > Press > Picture Archive