Kazakhstan: This was the news the president of the Wabtec’s LKZ production site Marat Tleubayev revealed in his interview with the Kursiv media.
He explained that the plant purchased new equipment for this purpose. In March, Senior Vice President of Wabtec Gokhan Bayhan announced the plans to double LKZ’s production which now is only 10 locomotives per month.
Tleubayev said the company built 42 locomotives in 2022 and disclosed the plans for the next few years. LKZ signed contracts to produce 90 vehicles in 2023 and has a confirmed order for 93 locomotives in 2024 and 76 ones in 2025. Another contract was signed with a Mongol party, but the scope of supply is still held in confidence. LKZ’s president says the company is going to receive more orders than it does now.
Earlier, Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov announced the national operator Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) planned to purchase 187 diesel locomotives from Wabtec and Russia between 2023 and 2026. In 2022, KTZ signed a $600 mln memorandum with Wabtec on the delivery of 150 FLXdrive battery electric shunters and the conversion of mainline locomotives to LNG.
LKZ has been producing various versions of ТE33A mainline diesel locomotives since 2009 and ТEМ11A shunters since 2020. Wabtec and TMH owned the site equally until 2022. In its latest financial report, the Russian manufacturer stated that it does not own a share in the asset anymore.
