The President of the Republic of Croatia, Stjepan Mesić, today participated in the ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of Jugoturbina – the Steam Turbine Factory in Karlovac, accompanied by local government officials, representatives of the Embassy of the French Republic, and representatives of the Alstom group. On this occasion, he commissioned two new capital machines for heavy machining, worth over 10 million euros together with the robotic workshop.
Speaking about the history of Jugoturbina, which was established in 1949 under the original name "Edvard Kardelj" by order of General Ivan Gošnjak to meet the needs of the war and commercial navy, Damir Vranić, President of the Management Board of Alstom Croatia, reminded that Jugoturbina had 9,950 employees at the time of its greatest expansion in the 1980s, and in addition to production, it developed a supporting school system and a research and development institute. Following the breakup of the former state and the Eastern market, and bankruptcy, the new owner of the Steam Turbine Factory became ABB in 1991, which was taken over by the Alstom group after difficulties in 2000. Revenue grew from 19.2 million euros in 2003 to over 56 million euros today, with a five-year investment cycle of over 20 million euros, mainly in heavy machining and sophisticated turbine blade production. The number of employees has doubled from 390 in 2000 to today’s 783, with the largest part of production and services being realized in the foreign energy market. (Mladen Volarić)
