APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110014-8
The development policies of the 1950's have left the machine building industry badly in need of modernization. The policy of diversification within the industry has led to the production of many products on too small a scale for economic efficiency. Recently the Czechoslovaks have been outspoken on the need for specialization of machinery production among CEMA members, citing the need to improve product quality and expand the market for machinery exports in the industrial West. At the same time, however, longstanding requirements for CEMA partners for standardized types of heavy machinery have put Czechoslovakia in the business of producing essentially the same machines year after year without making major technical changes. Thus, Czechoslovakia has lost ground in the made-to-order world of Western market economics. In the machine tool industry, however, the country does possess some enterprises that produce competitive equipment, and in recent years the industry has made a determined bid to expand exports to the industrial West, achieving considerable success in West Germany and Italy. In addition, large Skoda-made machine tools have been sold in the United States since 1964.
Czechoslovakia produces enough machine tools, electrical machinery and equipment, mining equipment, and railroad equipment to satisfy most domestic requirements and to allow substantial exports. Although Czechoslovakia produces a wide range of agricultural machinery, there has been a chronic shortage of it on the farms, aggravated by a continuing decrease in the farm labor force. Recognizing finally the seriousness of the shortage, the 14th Party Congress passed a resolution in 1970 which gave priority to the development of comprehensive farm mechanization and placed the agricultural machinery industry among the key industry branches. As a result, production of agricultural machinery reached record levels in 1970-72. In addition, a significant quantity of machinery is imported, primarily from Communist countries, amounting to perhaps as much as 40% to 50% of the annual supply to agriculture. At the same time, despite domestic shortages, Czechoslovakia is one of the major exporters of agricultural machinery among the East European Communist countries, most of it doing to these countries.
The machine building industry has not developed the capability to manufacture a wide range of modern and specialized metallurgical equipment. Small domestic requirements for such equipment are met primarily through imports. Czechoslovakia does, however, turn out a large number of heavy standardized rolling mills, many of which are produced for the U.S.S.R. The country also is deficient in the production of modern types of chemical equipment and has made substantial purchases of chemical plants and technology from Japan and Western Europe and the United States since 1960. Despite production problems, Czechoslovakia is a leading supplier of chemical equipment to the other Communist countries. Exports and imports, by value, of major categories of machinery and equipment in 1972 are shown in the following tabulation (in millions of current U.S. dollars):
| Exports | Imports | |
|---|---|---|
| Metalworking machinery | 192.3 | 104.2 |
| Agricultural machinery | 84.4 | 159.2 |
| Electrical machinery | 340.5 | 197.8 |
| Transport equipment | 629.6 | 270.5 |
Czechoslovakia's motor vehicle industry, the largest in Eastern Europe, is being expanded during 1971-75 to about double its previous capacity. As planned, the industry will be capable of producing 50,000 trucks and 300,000 passenger cars a year, an output level designed to supply an expanding domestic market, to meet the import needs of other Communist countries, and to sell more cars for hard currency in the West. Moreover, Czechoslovakia is to specialize within CEMA in building heavy cross-country trucks for military and general transport use; the Tatra plant at Koprivnice is being expanded for this purpose.
Passenger cars are of increasing importance in Czechoslovakia's foreign trade program. Because of large commitments to other Communist countries and the need to earn hard currency in the West, Czechoslovakia each year exports more than half of the cars it builds (89,000 in 1972). In turn, it imports large numbers of cars (120,000 in 1972), mainly from other Communist countries, to supply its active retail market and fill other domestic needs for cars.
Czechoslovakia also produces a wide range of military end items, including arms and armaments, fire-control equipment, armored vehicles, aircraft (jet trainers), quartermaster equipment, and military optical, photographic, and telecommunications equipment. Among the most sophisticated facilities are the modern Turcianske Machine Works in Martin (tanks), the Aero Airframe Plant and the Motorlet Engine Plant near Prague (jet trainers), the Detva Heavy Equipment Plant (armored personnel carriers), and the Adamov Armament and Machinery Plant (antitank missiles). In addition to satisfying much of its own needs, the quantity and reputable quality of Czechoslovakia's military production make it an important supplier to other Eastern European
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110014-8
