R.S. Malikhov, Director General of “NefAZ” Inc., has been awarded with the title of “Honored Machine Building Engineer of the Russian Federation” for his contribution into machine building industry and for years of honest work.

Below is what Raif S. Malikhov says about his company, which is a Bashkortostan located KAMAZ subsidiary with about 8,500 employees:

- NefAZ today is a company, that ensures stability in Neftekamsk, it is one of the major component suppliers of KAMAZ, which produces superstructures, trailers, semi-trailers, big city buses, coaches and intercity buses. Within 8 months of 2003 NefAZ has produced 5,248 dump trucks and dump plants, 340 wagon buses, over 2,500 trailers and semi-trailers, 332 passenger buses – to the total value of about 2 billion Rubles. As compared with the same period of 2002 the company has increased its production volumes by 106,7 %. Output and sales volumes have been steadily growing.

This is especially true for a Bus Division, which was put into operation in 2001. In accordance with this year plan there will be assembled not less than 600 buses (vs. 345 units in 2002). At the moment, we are assembling 80 “Caterpillar” engine powered buses, ordered by “BashNefteChim” company. These buses should be ready for shipment within October-November. Our delivery geography expands from month to month. NefAZ-5299 buses run almost in 13 regions of Russia and outside of the country - from Kazakhstan to Surgut, from Kemerovo to Leningrad region. This year it got a Diploma at “The Best Products of Bashkortostan” contest. Launch into production of a touring coach has become quite an event in Russia. It has been a success at Moscow Motor Show and we are sure that the bus will find a ready market quite soon.

In this market segmentation NefAZ buses can compete with western manufactured ones. A year ago we launched an advanced painting line in Bus Division. Now, its capacity is not enough any more, it needs more space for further expansion. We have invested a lot of money into bus production - 500 mln Rubles. We need to expand our product range and improve their quality. Sales volumes of NefAZ big city buses rank the second position in Russia.

Our basic product is still the dump truck based on KAMAZ chassis. This complex is reliably functioning, as in this segmentation KAMAZ has got the largest market share in Russia and CIS. This August we have executed a big order for “BashSelkhozTechnika” company. Now time has come for refurbishment and upgrading of a dump truck production facility. We are allocating quite considerable funds for this project as we wish to significantly improve quality of these vehicles. We are keeping up the same high speed of production of trailers and wagon buses and this year we had a 30 % increase.

This resulted in development of new working places: the plant employed over 1,500 people in 2003. Our company is 26 years old so it is time for generation change – this is why we prefer to hire young staff - those who graduated from universities or finished technical schools and colleges. Being a profitable company, we are funding a social infrastructure of the city. Our own construction company is currently building a 120-apartment house for NefAZ plant employees. Credit on mortgage for house building has been granted in our city for several years already.

We never change our principles and put all our efforts to provide company employees with every possible social support. For example: more than 1,000 children of our employees spent their holidays in summer camps outside of the city. “Lukomor’ye” - our camping area - is functioning all year round. The Company’s Health Care Center can provide for any scope of medical and sanitation services at an advanced level.