Railway Equipment

Alstom Becomes Majority Shareholder in its Kazakh Locomotive Joint Venture

Alstom has signed an agreement with Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ) to acquire their 25% stake in the EKZ Joint Venture (JV) for the production of electric locomotives.

After approval by the relevant authorities, Alstom will see its total share brought to 75%. The agreement was signed by Maksat Kabashev, KTZ Strategy VP and Didier Pfleger, Alstom Senior Vice-President for Middle-East and Africa.

Alstom entered the Kazakhstan’s railway market in June 2010 together with its Russian partner Transmashholding (TMH), by laying the first stone of the EKZ facility in order to build locomotives for the Kazakh network. The joint company was held by Alstom (25%), TMH (25%) and Kazakh Railways (50%). Alstom, EKZ, TMH and KTZ had signed a contract for the supply of 200 Prima T8 (KZ8A) and 95 Prima M4 (KZ4A) locomotives. The plant was inaugurated in 2012. In 2016, Alstom had acquired another 25% from KTZ. The freight locomotives are now fully assembled at EKZ, the full assembly of passenger locos will start in the beginning of 2018.

This acquisition reaffirms Alstom commitment to modernising Kazakhstan railway and follows the signature of a MoU last week in Astana by Henri Poupart-Lafarge, Alstom Chairman and CEO and Mr Kanat Alpysbayev, President of KTZ, for Alstom other local JV KEP  for the modernisation of the signalling in 25 railway stations around the country.

Kazakhstan is an important hub linking Europe, Middle East, Asia and Russia through the new Silk Way. With almost 20,000 km of tracks, the Kazakh railway network is the world’s third biggest using the 1,520 mm track gauge. Besides wide and winterised rolling stock able to run in temperatures reaching -50°C, this market is characterised by very specific technical standards which require adapted engineering solutions.

The Prima range is covering all market segments of locomotives from heavy-haul (mostly in China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and India), freight and passenger operation (Europe, Africa, Middle East, and CIS) and shunting or trackworks operation (Europe). The Prima brand stands for innovative traction solutions, including electric or diesel-electric traction systems, as well as hybrid or bi-mode systems.

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