经济学人下载:塞尔维亚的制造业 巴尔干遗产

Business
商业报道

Manufacturing in Serbia
塞尔维亚的制造业

Balkan legacy
巴尔干遗产

Fiat goes east to lower costs
菲亚特东迁降低成本

MASS-MARKET carmakers in western Europe are enduring car sales at their lowest since 1993.
畅销的汽车制造商在西欧正忍受着自1993年以来的最低销量。

They are losing money on their assembly plants in their home countries, yet politics makes it hard to close them.
他们在本国组装厂赔钱，但政策又使得很难将它们关闭。

That has encouraged them to seek ways of manufacturing more cheaply in emerging-market states on Europe's periphery, to drive down their average costs.
这鼓励他们在欧洲外围国家寻找更便宜的新兴市场的方式来压低他们的平均成本。

Take Fiat, which lost 247m in the third quarter of this year.
菲亚特在今年第三季度亏损2.47亿。

Some 5,700 workers have been put on extended leave in Italy, and even in Poland Fiat has had to shed 1,450 jobs.
在意大利约5,700名工人休长假，在波兰菲亚特甚至不得不裁员1,450个工作岗位。

But its Serbian operation is expanding, and in just over a year has gone from zero to becoming the country's largest exporter.
但在塞尔维亚业务却不断扩大，并在短短一年多时间已经从零到成为其最大的出口商。

Since March, Fiat has taken on 600 new workers and now employs 3,800 at its plant at Kragujevac, a town in central Serbia.
自三月以来，菲亚特在塞尔维亚中部的一个小镇的工厂招聘了600名新工人，现在已拥有员工3,800名。

Local suppliers to the plant have taken on a further 1,200 recruits.
本地供应商的工厂也新招聘了1,200名新员工。

Fiat has invested 1.2 billion in the plant, which now turns out 600 of the company's chunky, family-friendly 500L small cars each day.
菲亚特已经在这个厂投资1.2亿美元，每天产出600辆耐用的、适合家用的500L小型车。

The region was so badly hit in the 1990s by the collapse of Yugoslavia, followed by sanctions and war that it became known as hunger valley.
上世纪90年代南斯拉夫解体对该地区造成了严重的打击，再加上制裁和战争使它成为饥饿的山谷。

But it had an industrial legacy in Zastava, maker of Yugo cars and Kalashnikov rifles.
但它在扎斯塔瓦有一个工业遗产，优吾车和卡拉什尼科夫步枪的制造商。

In 1989, the last full year of the old Yugoslavia, 180,950 cars rolled off the production lines. In 2004 Zastava produced only 13,300 of its ropy models.
1989年，老南斯拉夫全年有180,950辆汽车从生产线下线。在2004年却只生产了13,300辆它的ropy型号。

What saved Zastava from oblivion was its links to Fiat, which dated back to 1954.
与菲亚特的关系使扎斯塔瓦免于被遗忘，这个关系可追溯到1954年。

In 2008 the assets of Zastava were transferred to a new company, Fiat Automobili Srbija, owned 67% by the Italian firm.
2008年扎斯塔瓦的资产被转移到一个新的公司，位于意大利的菲亚特汽车有限公司SRBIJA拥有67％的股权。

Since then, the old Zastava plant has been demolished. In the new one, workers with an average age of 30 move around silently, tapping instructions into computer terminals that control the plant's robots.
从那时起老扎斯塔瓦厂就被拆毁了。在平均年龄为30岁的新厂里工人在默默地将指令输入计算机终端控制工厂的机器人。

The rationale for producing in Serbia is cost: the wage Fiat pays there is a fifth of what it pays in Italy, and a third of what it pays in Poland.
在塞尔维亚生产的理由是成本：菲亚特支付的工资只有在意大利的五分之一，是在波兰的三分之一。

Last November, however, protests from disgruntled workers forced Fiat to increase wages in Kragujevac by 13%.
然而去年11月不满的工人迫使菲亚特在克拉古耶瓦茨增加13％工资。

The Serbian government subsequently agreed to compensate Fiat for this by paying it 10,000 for each employee it took on—not the first time a government has had its arm twisted by a carmaker into providing subsidies.
随后塞尔维亚政府同意为每一位员工补偿菲亚特10000欧元，这不是政府第一次由汽车制造商拧着胳膊为其提供补贴。

It also promised Fiat a further 3,000 per car to make cheaper 500Ls for the Serbian market.
它还承诺每辆车补贴菲亚特3,000欧元降低塞尔维亚市场500Ls车的价格。

France and rival car importers cried foul, and the European Commission ruled that Serbia, a candidate for European Union membership, had indeed violated state-aid rules.
法国和竞争对手的汽车进口商哭诉违反规则，欧盟委员会裁定塞尔维亚的确触犯了国家援助规则，而其是加入欧盟的候选国。

The car-price subsidy was abandoned but the cash-for-workers one was not.
汽车价格补贴被放弃，但工人现金补贴没有。

The plant could make 200,000 cars a year but its production will be lower.
工厂一年可以生产200,000辆汽车，但其产量将会降低。

One reason is that Serbia failed to persuade Russia to include cars in a free-trade agreement struck in 2011.
原因之一是2011年塞尔维亚未能说服俄罗斯将汽车列入自由贸易协定。

Kragujevac has good transport links and is close to Fiat's main European markets.
克拉古耶瓦茨拥有良好的交通是菲亚特在欧洲的主要市场。

The government would like to encourage more such investment, because too much of Serbia's measly economic growth since 2008 has been achieved without creating jobs.
政府希望有更多的投资，因为自2008年以来塞尔维亚可怜的经济增长创造不了多少就业机会。

How annoying, then, that one of the advertisements made to publicise the 500L in America shows the cars arriving as women strip off their outer garments to the cry of: The Italians are coming!
讨厌的是在美国做广告宣传500L汽车时妇女脱掉外衣喊叫：意大利人都来了！

If only potential American investors knew that these Italians are really Serbs.
假如只有潜在的美国投资者知道这些意大利实际上是塞尔维亚的。