The protest started around 10 am, with the hauliers driving under police escort in a broken line with each section consisting of some 50 trucks so as not to obstruct traffic on the road running along the Adriatic coast. Despite the measures, traffic was brought to a standstill around 11 am on the Sibenik ring-road.
The protest was organised by the coordinating body of hauliers' associations, which urged the government to cancel the agreement on the sale of the factory's transport unit to the Slovene company Viator Vektor.
Ivan Knezovic, the leader of road hauliers, said the sale of the transport unit at a price of 1.6 million kuna was shameful, because its book value was 13.5 million and real value around 25 million kuna.
The signing of the agreement, which grants the Slovene company the exclusive right to transport all products of the Light Metal Factory in the next three years, jeopardises the survival of Croatian hauliers, Knezovic said.
The hauliers said they expected the government to examine the documents on the sale of the factory unit and inform them of its findings next week, otherwise they would stage a protest of all Croatian road hauliers.
(1 EUR = 7.35 kuna)