Kazakhstan Achieves 20% Localization in Rail Cars: What to Expect by 2029?

Kazakhstan has reached a 20% localization rate for the production of passenger rail cars, this is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

This was announced by the Minister of Industry and Construction, Kanat Sharlapaev, at a recent briefing. According to him, “The wheelsets are produced in Kazakhstan, and some of the metal and plastic components are also manufactured domestically,” as reported by the Kapitalkz agency.

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Currently, passenger rail cars are produced by the ZIKSTO plant.

Starting deliveries in 2023, the company plans to supply 307 rail cars to the national carrier Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) by 2025.

After that, a long-term contract with the Swiss company Stadler will begin for 537 rail cars, with the localization rate expected to be 9.4% in the first year and reach 35.2% by 2029.

The French company Alstom, which assembles electric locomotives in Kazakhstan, reported a current localization rate of 31% and plans to increase it to 39% in the coming years.

Meanwhile, the share of Kazakhstani components in diesel locomotives produced by the American company Wabtec exceeds 74%.

Chinese CRRC currently only imports rolling stock.

As for freight hopper cars, the localization rate in Kazakhstan has reached 70%, which is considered high.

They are produced by Kazakhstan Wagon Manufacturing Company, a subsidiary of KTZ. The summer months saw the start of hopper car assembly at the new TEXOL plant in Atyrau.

Kanat Sharlapaev emphasized that Kazakhstan is actively working to increase localization levels through long-term contracts with guaranteed order volumes for rolling stock.

In particular, there are plans to ramp up the production of medium and large rail casting. The main producer of such casting in Kazakhstan is the Railways Systemz KZ group.

Photo: ZIKSTO

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