When a phone rings in Eldis of Pardubice, the company that deals in the development and manufacture of airport radar systems, there is almost a hundred percent certainty the call is coming from China. Eldis is now planning to commence business cooperation with the Chinese state companies regarding radar deliveries. Another important customer is thus heading to be added to the company's portfolio. Eldis currently delivers its products to 25 countries and is not afraid to do business in very distant parts of the world. The company cooperates for example with Equatorial Guinea or Suriname. How China fits into the composition of business destinations, how many radars the company wants to sell this year and who will be the next customer, about these topics we talked to Aleš Jedlička, the director of ELDIS Pardubice.
China makes you busy, just now you are having their delegation to do the business terms tuning. What has been already achieved in relation to China?
There are currently 13 signed business contracts with a Chinese partner. Specifically, they concern 4 combined radars and 8 secondary radars. The remaining contract is for a primary radar that will be a part of the local radar that has been in operation for several years. This radar will also be enhanced, and more functions and features will be added to it. Thanks to the current development of the situation and deepening of our cooperation with this customer, we will soon participate in a tender for the supply of another 11 radars.
Is this a one-time deal, or do you want to work with China for a long time?
Much will depend on how we manage together with China to implement the projects under negotiation. Here we will see how both parties work and to what extent these projects will fit into our production and development concept. However, China is a country with great potential, so I think it should be a longer rather than a one-off cooperation.
What other projects or contracts is ELDIS working on?
Currently, there are several new or already running projects. We can say that we took in almost the maximum number of orders since we are using our production capacities to their maximum, at the moment. We are expanding the capacities further, though. Anyway, in India, for example, we installed three MSSR-1 secondary radars in Aurangabad, Berhampur and Bikaner. The production of radars for customers from Jordan and Bulgaria is also in progress. In the coming weeks, we will deliver to the Army of the Czech Republic the last one of the contracted radars. Along with the development, production and installation of radars, we are modernizing radars in Vietnam and Hungary, where we supplied the radars 15 years ago. We also participate in tenders in 4 countries, in Slovakia, India, Norway and Morocco, to be specific. In addition, we monitor activities in Thailand, Africa or Poland, where we have already implemented our installations.
