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Romania Machine Building
Contributing about 35 percent of total industrial
output in the
1980s, machine building had become the largest industrial
sector.
The Soviet Union and Comecon helped set up and outfit
machinebuilding plants in the 1950s, but during the 1960s Romania
began
acquiring technology and know-how from the West. In the
1980s,
however, many manufacturing ventures initiated with
Western
partners in the previous decade were on shaky ground or
had already
failed. As a rule, capitalist enterprises found both the
output and
quality of goods produced by these ventures
unsatisfactory. Because
of restrictions on imports, domestic industry was required
to
satisfy nearly 90 percent of the country's machinery and
equipment
needs during the 1980s.
In terms of both volume and diversity of output, the
machinery
sector was impressive. In 1982 Romania ranked tenth in the
world in
the production of machine tools and was the world's
largest
exporter of railroad freight cars and the third largest
exporter of
oil-field equipment. It was one of the few countries to
build
offshore-drilling platforms. A symbol of industrial
sophistication,
the giant rigs were assembled at the Galati shipyard using
domestically manufactured components. And great strides
had been
made in the production of aircraft, electronic and
electrical
equipment, ships, and ground vehicles.
Data as of July 1989
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