LIBYA has started lorry and birs assembly at a plant
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capable 01 producing 4,200 lorries and 200. 300 buses a year. It is hoped thai by 1985 the new plant will bc meeting about 12 per cent of Libyan demand for trucks, anc about one quarter of that foi buses.
Located at Tajoura, about 2C kilometres east of Tripoli, thE plant is operated by the Libyar Truck and Bus Company. This was formed in December 1976 with 75 per cent of its £22,5 million capital contributed by Libya and the rest by Fiat, in which thE Libyan Arab Foreign Bank has a 10 per cent stake.
Construction of the plant which will be officially openec soon, began in 1977.
Initially, the plant will assem• ble vehicles from imported Fiai parts, but it is hoped that locally manufactured components wil eventually comprise between 2C and 25 per cent of the vehicles.
Tajoura is also the site of a truck body and trailer assembly plant, in which Italy's CalabresE company is involved. Schedulec to enter operation soon, part of the output will be used by thE adjacent truck and bus plant.
Rapidly rising incomes in Libya, coupled with the country's ambitious development programmes, have led to soaring demand for commercial vehicles. Recent statistics from the Tripoli Chamber of Commerce showed that at the end of 1980 there were 606,674 vehicles in Libya, of these 372,860 were private cars, averaging out at one for every five Libyans.
Recently concluded orderE point to further increases in thE number of vehicles on Libya'.5. roads. BL has won contracts tc supply several thousand vehicles, of which 4,500 will be shipped this year, all of them Land-Rovers and Range Rovers.