Czech Business & Trade 3/2018

ECONOMIC POLICY
its investment and business activities are
targeted so as to ensure a permanent yearon-year
progressive growth of revenue. In
the past few years, its total revenue has
been growing by 5-6 % a year on average
and the same stable growth is expected in
2018 and subsequent years, mainly thanks
to the planned schedule of new projects
– deliveries of spark plugs and sensors for
the serial production of large car factories.
“The current structure of the product, client
and market portfolio eliminates the loss of
revenue risk in one segment, one client,
one territory. The firm supplies spark plugs
and sensors for primary production and as
spares. However, we are not dependent exclusively
on the automotive industry; our
products are intended for aircraft engines,
motorcycles, ships and garden equipment
(OEM supplies its products to the largest
garden machinery manufacturers in Sweden,
the USA, and China),” says Mojmír
Čapka, Chairman of the Board of Brisk, a.s.
“Our plan is to increase exports by at least
10 %, specifically to Sweden, Germany,
France, the Netherlands and the USA. We
are profiting from our long-term, active
and hard work with customers in those
countries. And this is by no means an easy
task, especially as regards delivery requirements
and the quality of products, where
requirements are increasingly demanding.
Another problem is the shortage of skilled
workers on the part of the clients, and
their inadequate theoretical and practical
knowledge. The problem is precise specification
of what the client really wants. The
young generation of PC and SW developers
will create anything, even things that
cannot be realised in practical production,”
states Tomáš Prášil, Project Manager of the
Motor Jikov Group, a.s.
Czech Engineering
An important sector of the Czech manufacturing
industry is the manufacture of
CZ-NACE 28 category machines and equipment.
It comprises a very broad range of
equipment used for processing materials
mechanically or thermally, or carrying out
production processes on materials (e.g. manipulation,
spraying, weighing, packing),
including the production of their mechanical
components producing or using force.
It also comprises specially made parts for
those machines and equipment. The sector
further includes fixed, moving and manually
operated equipment, regardless of whether
it is intended for industry, crafts, construction
and agriculture or household use. The
sector also comprises the manufacture of
special equipment for personal or cargo
transport. It accounts for approx. 8 % of the
revenue derived from own products and
services of the manufacturing industry. The
dominant category within the sector is large
and medium-sized enterprises. Large enterprises
accounted for 56 % of the revenue,
52 % of value added and 48 % of employed
persons. The shares of medium-sized enterprises
were from 31 to 36 %.
One of the important sectors of Czech general
engineering is energy engineering,
which is experiencing a period of prosperity
thanks to a growing global demand for
energy. Energy engineering comprises the
manufacture and delivery of equipment
for various general engineering sectors,
ranging from the manufacture of turbines,
fixtures, compressors and pumps, to lifting
and handling equipment. The affiliation of
Czech energy equipment manufacturers
with supranational companies often opens
the way for them to gain foreign contracts.
At the same time, a number of purely Czech
companies are successful exporters of energy
equipment thanks to their long tradition
and favourable references.
The manufacture of industrial cooling and
air-conditioning equipment is another
group with good prospects, as the refrigeration
sector impacts practically all branches
of human activities, including the safety and
quality of foods in the supply chain from the
harvest to the consumer; air-conditioning of
buildings, pharmaceutical production and
healthcare, and the low temperature and
gas liquefaction and cooling equipment
used in all sectors of industry. The tradition
and current high standards of machine tool
production, which forms an indispensable
part of the sector, augurs well for the further
successful development of this group.
Photo: www.bigstockphoto.com
| 8