Minsk Automobile Plant
MAZ logo
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Central entrance to MAZ factory
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Native name
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Minski Autamabilny Zavod |
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| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | July 16, 1944 |
| Headquarters | Minsk, Belarus |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Aliaksandr Barouski |
| Products | Trucks, buses, trolleybuses |
 US$ 167 million (2011) |
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| Website | www |
Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ, Belarusian: Адкрытaе Акцыянэрнaе Таварыства «Мінскі аўтамабільны завод», Open JSC Minski Autamabilny Zavod, Russian: Минский автомобильный завод Minskyi Avtomobilnyi Zavod) is a state-run automotive manufacturer association in Belarus, one of the largest in Eastern Europe.
It was built shortly after the Second World War. The first MAZ model (MAZ-200) used General Motors designed 2-stroke engines. Later on their own original engines were developed and implemented in the MAZ-500 series. Not only the plant itself, but the entire living infrastructure were built in a short time. Apartment buildings, shops, medical clinics, cinemas etc. were built in close proximity to the MAZ plant, providing plant workers with local (though limited) necessities. On many of the construction sites German prisoners of war were working together with Belarusian construction workers. The majority of these buildings are still in service today.
It manufactures heavy-duty trucks, buses, trolleybuses, road tractors and semi-trailers for semi-trailer trucks, and cranes. MAZ was, and possibly is, the world's largest manufacturer of TELs (Transporter-Erector-Launchers) for many of the world's mobile ballistic missiles, from the widely proliferated MAZ-543 used to carry and launch the Scud B through to the recent Topol M's impressive 8-axle TEL.
At the end of Soviet times, MAZ was the largest manufacturer of heavy trucks in the Soviet Union, and the only one for some truck categories. After the Soviet Union dissolved, MAZ production was reduced substantially, as has happened with many enterprises in the ultra-industrialized Belarus, oriented on the needs of a very big country. The previously mentioned production of public transport vehicles was a result of following diversification of the company.
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Wikipedia