Roman (commercial vehicle manufacturer)

SC Roman SA
legal form	Corporation
founding	1921
Seat	Brașov
sales	approx. 162 million € (2007)
Branch	Automotive industry
Website	www.roman.ro (Romanian)

Roman SA is a Romanian manufacturer of trucks , buses and other commercial vehicles based in Brașov .

history

SR-113, one of the vehicles from production before MAN license production (2017)

The history of the plant began in 1921 with the establishment of ROMLOC - FABRICA DE LOCOMOTIVE ŞI VAGOANE . The factory produced locomotives and wagons . As early as 1936, the company was merged with another. From the mid-1930s, the plant operates under the name ASTRA , the old ROMLOC factory buildings are almost completely replaced. In 1938, the production of ammunition and weapons began alongside rail vehicles . During the Second World War , mainly artillery pieces and the associated large-caliber ammunition were produced. The plant was bombed in 1944, but then rebuilt.

On August 21, 1948, the Steagul-Roşu -Werke (translated: Red Flag Works) were founded on the site of the old ROMLOC locomotive factory. From 1954, the first SR-101 trucks with a payload of three tons were delivered, and many other types followed. The SR-101 was a copy of the Soviet ZIS-150 from the Sawod imeni Stalina and was built around 54,000 times in Romania by 1965.

In 1969 the company, then known as Întreprinderea de Autocamioane Brașov , acquired a license for the production of MAN commercial vehicles. Another license agreement for the replica of the MAN metro bus followed in the mid-1970s . Since then, part of the production has also been delivered under the Diesel Auto Camion (DAC) brand .

In addition to commercial vehicle imports from other Eastern Bloc countries (mainly Czechoslovakia and Poland ), Roman trucks were also delivered to the GDR from 1977 , mainly dump trucks and tractor units . And there were also concrete mixers and complete cooling trailer trucks imported.

In most cases, Roman 215 hp diesel engines that were manufactured under a MAN license were used as the drive source . It was not until 1987 that there were also 256-hp turbo engines in articulated lorries. Almost all parts of the novel were made in Romania. In total, more than 2,800 trucks from this manufacturer reached the GDR by 1989.

On November 15, 1987, the Brașov uprising broke out in the Steagul Roşu plant, which was suppressed by state security forces and involved around 20,000 city workers. It was directed against the economic policy of Nicolae Ceaușescu in socialist Romania . Between 1988 and 1990 one of the largest large dump trucks in the world at that time, the DAC 120 DE , was built in the Brașov plant .

The time after the political upheavals of 1990 was marked by mismanagement and various attempts to privatize the plant. The company was not in the black until the 2000s. The privatization was only successfully completed in 2004. Since then, the plant has also manufactured new models and trucks for the military. The 750,000 left in 2000. Trucks the factory premises. From 2002, engines were installed that meet the EURO-3 emissions standard.

In 2015, a court in Brașov opened bankruptcy proceedings against the company. The shares were then withdrawn from trading, but nothing is known of the plant being closed.