BelAZ is a Belarusian automobile plant and one of the world's largest manufacturers of large and especially large dump trucks, as well as other heavy transport equipment for the mining and construction industries. BelAZ is a site for one of the largest Commonwealth of Independent States investment projects. In 1948, construction of a peat engineering plant began in the city of Zhodino (56 km northeast of Minsk). Three years later, the enterprise was repurposed for the production of road cars. In 1958, the plant again changed its specialization - it began producing dump trucks and received a new name - the Belarusian Automobile Plant (BelAZ).