Tabiczky Zoltánné: A Magyar Vagon- és Gépgyár története 2. 1946-1972 (Győr, 1977)

Harmadik fejezet. Új utakon az újraegyesítés után (1964-1972)

this process was Ede Horváth appointed to general manager in the spring of 1963, and a resolution passed by the Economic Committee of Government brought into force as of January 1, 1964, according to which the big firms af machine industry in Győr were to be amalgamated. After a separation of nearly a decade and a half and a subsequent rapid development, the former organizational unity of the Győr Waggon Works was restored again by the beginning of the Third Five-Year Plan (1966—1970).

The most important task of the new leadership was to create a product composition ensuring development and a satisfactory degree of employment. Rolling stock production was no more enough to take up all the production capacity of the factory; it had, therefore, to become connected with the production of road vehicles and engines, an important precondition of further development. This was promoted by a decision of the COMECON, that gave Hungary the task of developing and producing big buses and also ensured market for the finished goods.

When the motor vehicle and tractor industry of the country was reorganized, the Győr factory, being experienced in the production of motor vehicles, was entrusted with the production of axles and engines for heavy-duty buses and lorries. This new range of production basically determined the tasks of the big industrial firm for the decades to follow and ensured the possibilities of further development.

In 1965 the production value of the united mammoth enterprise amounted to 3 milliard forints, with an export mounting up to 40 per cent. In that year the factory already had 16,000 workers and employees and the total volume of investment came to 0.7 milliard forints.

The factory started the Third Five-Year Plan (1966-1970) in the old form of organization and under the traditional name (i.e. it was again called Hungarian Railway Carriage and Machine Works — MVG — since 1965) and used the trade mark ,,RÁBA”. In the course of the plan period the RÁBA Works started to work on establishing the production capacity required for the long-run production of road vehicle axles and engines. The axle type 018, having an axle load of 10 tons and capable of transferring 200— 300 HP, developed on RÁBA’s own resources, created possibility for an annual production rate of ten thousands as against the number of pieces produced till then. For the purpose of mass production a new workshop of steel construction, with a floor space of 28,000 m2 was built on the once-used airfield. In 1969 the new type of axles could already be mass-produced.

The mass-production of the new heavy-duty engines was rea127

lised through buying the licence of the West-German MAN engines, upon a government decision. The new RÁBA plant producing engines was inaugurated on June 17, 1969, and had a capacity of producing 13,000 engines and service parts each year, after an initial investment of 2.3 milliard forints. The biggest market for the mass-produced 160 to 260 HP engines, with horizontal, vertical and inclined cylinders, resp., is the Hungarian bus industry producing over 12,000 big buses yearly in the Ikarus Autobus Factory through making use of the sub-assemblies and assemblies made in Győr and Csepel. The RÁBA engines can be used for other purposes as well, for example in road vehicles of high load capacity, such as camions and heavy lorries, and rolling stock, watercrafts or fixed machine aggregates. The growth of capacity is reflected also in the changes in area of the big factory. In 1965 the whole area of the united factory was 879,500 m2 and in 1970 it covered 2,445,000 m2. In 1965 the built-in area was 266,000 m2, while in 1970 it extended to 395,000 m2. The former increased nearly threefold and the latter became almost one and a half times as big in ten years. To develop production capacity, to industrialize the province further and to draw in workers living outside Győr, new workshops were set up in other places and some older ones already existing and operating in Győr but not utilizing their capacities to the greatest possible extent were incorporated into the Waggon Works. The Data Processing Company of Győr began to work within the Hungarian Railway Carriage and Machine works in 1965 and in the following years other Transdanubian factories — Sárvár and Ajka in 1967, Kapuvár and the Foundry of Győr in 1968 — joined the parent company, too. It was also in 1968 that the investments into a new modern steel foundry with an annual production capacity of 18,000 tons of steel were begun, aiming to provide the whole of road vehicle production with cast steel.

The mass production of axles and engines made it possible to produce heavy lorries in Hungary. In accordance with an agreement between the Hungarian Railway Carriage and Machine Works and the Csepel Motor Works, dump trucks, semi-trailers and trucks having standard platform, with a loading capacity of over 10 tons each type, were put into mass production in 1970.

In 1970, that is in the last year of the plan period, the annual production of the Hungarian Railway Carriage and Machine Works amounted to 4.1 milliard forints (1.8 milliard of which being the value of its export) and the number of people employed was around 16,000. The new range of products proved to be a good choice and satisfied the arising new demands. Road vehicles made up 55 per cent of the products, the rate of rolling stock,