KrAZ

KrAZ (Ukrainian: Кременчуцький Автомобільний Завод, Kremenchutskyi Avtomobilnyi Zavod, Kremenchuk Automobile Plant, also Ukrainian: АвтоКрА́З, AvtoKrAZ) is a factory in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, that produces trucks and other special-purpose vehicles, particularly heavy-duty off-road models. The factory was incorporated as a holding company combining several other factories nationwide and becoming the industrial wing of the finance-industrial group Finance and Credit, which also held the Finance and Credit bank. On November 6, 2022, the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used martial law to nationalise the company. KrAZ was founded on 31 August 1945 when the People's Commissariat for Transportation Routes issued a warrant to build a mechanical bridge plant in Kremenchuk. The first brick was laid in the plant foundation in 1946 and during the next eight years it produced about 600 bridges with the total length of about 27 km for use on the Dnieper, Moscow, Dniester, Volga and Daugava rivers etc. In 1956 the plant has manufactured combine harvesters and other farming machines. The Kremenchuk Combine Plant has produced 11,000 agricultural machines in the first two years of its existence. On April 17, 1958, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union decided to rebuild a plant for heavy-duty vehicle production. Heavy-duty truck manufacture was transferred from the Yaroslavl Motor Plant (YaAZ). The first two KrAZ-222 dump trucks were assembled from imported units and components on 10 April 1959, and by 1961 the plant exported over 500 vehicles in 26 countries of the world such as Argentina, Afghanistan, Bulgaria, China, India, Vietnam etc. On December 30, 1968, 100,000th truck was assembled at the KrAZ main assembly plant On January 26, 1971, KrAZ was awarded the Order of Lenin for completion of the five-year plan ahead of schedule and successful developments of new truck models. On January 15, 1976, the plant became "AvtoKrAZ".