Fiat negotiates with Port of Bar - Company must soon choose partner for overseas transport of vehicles from Kragujevac

Representatives of Fiat Automobili Srbija (FAS) and a delegation of the Port of Bar started talks yesterday in Kragujevac about the possibilities of overseas transportation of vehicles that will be produced in Serbia as of May 2012. In the 1980's, former Zastava used the Port of Bar to export over 140,000 Yugo vehicles to the USA.

The situation is now much more complicated because the transport is endangered by new problems. The Belgrade-Bar railway is in poor condition, whereas shallow draft makes it difficult for ocean liners to anchor in the Port of Bar. Another option is Slovenia's Port of Kopar, which is also interested in participating in that transport and has recently negotiated with the officials of FAS.

Fiat will soon have to decide which port to use to transport automobiles to the U.S. and other overseas markets since the trial production of the first out of Fiat's two new models practically started in late October when the first bodies were assembled in Kragujevac.

The first complete new automobiles are expected to come out of the factory in Kragujevac in some ten days, that is, in the first half of this month, and not in late December as it was announced by certain media in Serbia. FAS will be making cars from the "zero series" of the new B-class model (whose working title is El Zero), with five seats, on the platform for vehicles Fiat Idea and Lanshia Musa in two variants (basic and luxury).