Former Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Zoran Djindjic, now investment banker Bozidar Djelic, stated that the state and the city of Kragujevac should engage in order to preserve the capacities of the car factory in Kragujevac.
– It is good that the President and the Minister of Finance were in Paris, but it is a pity, I do not see that they used this to meet the president of the new company (Stelantis) which was formed by merging Peugeot and Fiat – said Djelic in an interview for N1 and explained that after that merger, the most exposed to the danger of closing two factories, Voxol in Great Britain and Fiat in Kragujevac.
He warned that it is therefore important for the government to be engaged in order to preserve the capacity, because it is a matter of a large number of jobs and a significant exporter.
Djelic said that it is very bad that Fiat in Kragujevac, for whose arrival they fought for ten years, works with only ten percent of capacity.
Namely, in the last two years, only 20,000 vehicles came out, and nothing was done to get the production of another model, although the factory is very important because a series of companies was formed around it.
There is no doubt that Djelic, in a prominent position in the financial sector of France, is well acquainted with economic trends in the automotive industry on a global level and has information about Stelantis’ development plans, as a result of which his warnings should be taken seriously.
However, it should be noted that there are serious differences between the British Voxol and the Kragujevac Fiat Chrysler.
Voxol is one of the oldest and first decades of the 20th century, the leading British car manufacturer, which operated from General Motors from 1925 to 2017, and whose models, from the 80’s, were mostly designed and left the operation of the German Opel, which is, also, until 2017, was part of the JM.
Voxol, which has two more factories in Britain – one for the production of passenger cars and the other for commercial cars – has been the British version of Opel for decades, which is the basis for the assumption that the brand could be shut down in the already announced procedure of rationalizing Stelantis’ production capacities.
Kragujevac’s Fiat Chrysler, on the other hand, is only one of dozens of Stelantis factories around the world, in which only one model is produced, as a result of which the risk of closure is lower.
This does not mean that the Kragujevac factory of the state, which is also a co-owner, should be left to the exclusive decision of the management of Stelamntis, believes Danas’ interlocutor close to the Fiat administration in Turin.
He confirms that Vucic and Mali had to meet with a part of Stelantis’ management in Paris and present the production and personnel potentials of both the Kragujevac factory and its subcontractor companies, as well as the entire domestic automobile industry.
– We know how much struggle was fought between the Balkan countries when Volkswagen announced a year or two ago that it would build a new factory in that part of Europe. I do not understand why Serbia would not fight now if, in addition to Fiat, a Peugeot, Citroen or Opel, ie a factory for the production of those Stelantis brands, was built in Kragujevac – our interlocutor states.
He points out that it is inadmissible that the public in Serbia has not been acquainted with the development plans of Fiat Chrysler (now Stelantis) for years. FCA Executive Director for the EMEA region, Pietro Gorlie, officially announced an investment plan for Serbia last year, but half a year has passed since then, and there is no concrete information about that.
The state is, therefore, obliged as a co-owner of the factory, but also due to long-term subsidies for its production, to be thoroughly acquainted with the plans of Stelantis in Serbia and to inform the workers of Kragujevac, so as not to keep them in the dark, “although the chances that the only car factory in Serbia will be closed are minimal.”
– I don’t know why they would close it, when they invested a billion and a half euros in it. I can’t sell state-of-the-art equipment like scrap metal now. No normal person would do that. If they sold the factory as a set, then only the Chinese could buy it, and the European Union would not allow that. Therefore, the state should now use the situation that the director of the factory in Kragujevac, Silvia Vernetti, has been appointed to the board of directors of Stelantis, and start the most serious talks with the company’s management with her and with her support – says our interlocutor, Danas reports.
