300 diesel engines to be produced in Astana annually

GEVO plant in Astana will produce 300 new-generation diesel engines per year, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Lorenzo Simonelli, President of GE Transportation. “We are happy to announce a new stage of cooperation in production of the new-generation diesel engines. We cannot currently disclose the information on the investments and stakes of the parties, but I can say that the production capacity will be make 300 diesel generators per year and will be growing in future. The product is called the new-generation engine because it is very cost-efficient in terms of the fuel consumption and environmental-friendliness. The engines will be used in locomotives and will be supplied to Kazakhstan's regions and CIS (post soviet) countries,” Simonelli said at the ceremony of mounting a memorial plate at the plant’s construction site. The plant will be launched in December 2014. The agreement was signed in Astana last December by President of GE Transportation Lorenzo Simonelli, President of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy branch RemLokomotiv Asset Yerali and head of Russian TransMashDiesel Mukhametzhan Alzhanov. “The national company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (national railroad company of Kazakhstan) is successfully contributing to development of this industry together with the global leaders. Plants for production of electromotives and locomotives have been built. The company now taps into production of units and parts for locomotives produced in Astana. This is an important step for enhancing Kazakhstan content in the project. I would like to stress that Kazakhstan will continue pursuing a consistent policy aimed at improvement of business conditions and investment climate,” Kazakhstan Prime-Minister Serik Akhmetov said at the ceremony. According to the press-service of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the company will produce 8, 12 and 16-cylinder engines with capacities ranging from 2,200 to 4,500 kW and rated engine speed of 950 to 1,050 RPM. The engines will be used in production of Evolution locomotives in Kazakhstan and modernization of Russian twin-unit diesel locomotiveы of 2T116 series. Production of the engine parts will also be gradually moved to Kazakhstan: Kazakh content will make 8 percent in 2015, but will reach 51 percent by 2020. The plant for production of locomotive diesel engines is not the first project of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy implemented jointly with American and Russian companies. In particular, a plant for production of Evolution locomotives (Lokomotiv Kurastyru Zauyty) is operating on the basis of General Electric technology in Astana. It was opened in 2009. While Russian company TransMashHolding and French Alstom Transport are technological partners of the new Kazakhstan engineering plant called Elektrovoz Kurastyru Zauyty. By Baubek Konyrov