Kazakhstan: With this strategic document, both companies aim to strengthen ties and find new investment opportunities.
The Kazakh national investment fund stresses that the country is seeking to increase the level of localisation in locomotive production, while CRRC can gain access to the EAEU and European markets through Kazakhstan.
This is not the first case of cooperation between the Chinese company and the Kazakh business. In 2023, the national operator Kazakhstan Temir Zholy signed a $1.3 bln framework agreement with CRRC to supply up to 200 mainline and shunting diesel locomotives. It was also previously reported that CRRC plans to build a locomotive assembly plant with the operator SilkwayTransit.
In addition to previously announced plans to buy locomotives, Transport Minister Marat Karabayev said last week that the country plans to purchase 3,000 freight and 100 passenger cars, and that the purchase, worth KZT 173 bln ($380 mln), will be financed from the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund.
