Serbia’s Trayal Resumes Production

According to the Beta News Agency, production at one of the three tyre factories belonging to Serbian manufacturer Trayal Corporation will recommence during the week of February 23 to 27, following a three-month pause. The company’s Dedina passenger car tyre factory is the first to resume activity since work stopped at the Trayal plants in mid-November 2008. To begin with, the factory will produce 4,200 tyres per day, significantly lower than the target of 10,000 passenger car tyres per day (by the end of 2009) set when investment into capacity expansion was announced in February 2008.

Bulgarian parent company Brikel EAD is, according to Trayal general manager Petar Krstev, investing between 15 and 25 million euros into the tyre maker between January and June 2009 in order to get production under way again. The goal of the company’s new management is to achieve an operating profit in the second half of 2009.

Trayal’s industrial tyre factory will reportedly also resume production in the near future, while the loss making Cicevac motorcycle tyre plant will not begin manufacturing tyres again until a minimum profit is ensured.