Vladimir Shlyomin

"C

aterpillar has come to Russia with serious intentions and for a long time", stated James Sickinger, the recently appointed general director of Caterpillar Tosno. This plant located not far from Saint Petersburg has been successfully operating for almost 4 years. Supplies of its products are not limited to the Russian market alone.
he production activity of Caterpillar Inc. in Russia started in 1994. That year the joint venture NevaMash to manufacture components was set up together with the Kirov Engineering Plant (Saint Petersburg) on the site leased from the plant. Its products were shipped to Caterpillar’s assembly plants in Western Europe.
In 1996 the leadership of Caterpillar in Russia started looking for another place to build a new plant. Having quite a few options the company chose a large site in the outskirts of the town of Tosno, where it constructed 4 main buildings: a welding building, assembly shop, office block and block of auxiliary shops. The company’s investments totaled $63 million.
The universal machining center, autogenous and plasma cutting of metals as well as painting line are the most notable among the available equipment. Raw and other materials used there are mostly (85%) of the Russian origin. In particular, rolled iron is supplied by Severstal JSC.
The plant’s annual production volume amounts to 14,000 tons of large-sized parts for bulldozers, excavators, graders. Export shipments of these parts to assembly plants of Caterpillar Inc. in Belgium, Germany, Sweden will annually bring Caterpillar Tosno $64million.
In the worlds of Vito Baumgartner, the group president of Caterpillar Inc., before long assembly facilities will be set up in Russia as well. The plant in Tosno will start assembling middle-sized caterpillar tractors and hydraulic excavators for Russian building enterprises. At present, this market’s needs are estimated at 25,000 to 30,000 units. This is the result of the decrease in Russia’s manufacturing of building and excavation equipment during the last decade by as much as over 6 times: from 32,000 units in 1991 down to 5,000 units in 1999. Caterpillar intends to reduce sale prices for its machinery by 30% through saving on customs and transportation expenses.
"We are to change our motto in the CIS", says Jim Tevebaugh, the director general of CIS Caterpillar S.A.R.L. Instead of the previous one "To be the best in the industry" the new motto will be more challenging: "To be the world leader" in any sphere of business relations.
Currently, the personnel at the Caterpillar Tosno Plant numbers 781 employees and hiring the new ones, especially skilled workers, is still going on. The company guarantees not only decent wages but also a social package, which includes medical insurance and subsidies in case of cashless payment for dinners, as well as transportation for employees from Saint Petersburg to Tosno. The enterprise intends to extend its interaction with engineering colleges and universities under the program of personnel training.
Caterpillar Inc., the largest producer of building and ore-mining equipment as well as electric power installations, owns 84 plants in 20 countries. Its Russian enterprise, Caterpillar Tosno was officially opened on March 1, 2000. But, in fact, the history of operations of Caterpillar Inc. in the Russian market is almost a hundred years old. As far back as the early 20th century tractors manufactured by the company’s founders Daniel Best and Benjamin Halt were working in the vast expanses of Siberia. In 1913 Halt’s tractor was awarded a gold medal at the exhibition marking the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanovs.