Belarusian Stadler plant to transfer some production facilities to Poland, Switzerland

MINSK. March 20 (Interfax) - The Belarusian Stadler plant will reduce its staff and will transfer some production facilities to Poland and Switzerland, Stadler Rail CEO Peter Spuhler said in an interview with the portal of the Swiss media company SRG SSR (swissinfo.ch).

"The EU sanctions that will take effect on June 4 mean that electronic components will no longer be supplied to the country. It affects train air conditioners, passenger information systems, power conversion units, and transformers. As a result, Stadler has to transfer some of the assembly operations to Poland and Switzerland," Spuhler said.

In this regard, production in Fanipal, located not far from Belarus' capital Minsk, will be reduced even more. A total of 1,150 of the 1,700 employees who once worked for the plant now remain. The transfer of some production facilities will lead to the reduction of up to 700-800 employees over the course of the next three months, the media outlet reported, citing information provided by the Stadler Rail CEO.

At the same time, Spuhler said Stadler Rail has no intention of closing down its plant in Belarus. "We are not creating products for oligarchs, our products bring daily benefits to the population. Therefore, I have no guilty conscience about what we are doing," he said.

"We, entrepreneurs, are not global police and we don't want to be those who impose sanctions," the businessman said. He said he believes this is the task of international organizations such as the UN, NATO, the European Union and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). "After which it is totally clear: then we as entrepreneurs must observe these sanctions," Spuhler said.

The company Stadler Minsk, a resident of the free economic zone Minsk, is a leading Belarusian industrial enterprise manufacturing rolling stock and is part of the international concern Stadler Rail. The company has manufactured and supplied rail products to the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) with rail gage of 1,520 mm or 1,524 mm to the countries of Europe and Latin America since 2014.