Alstom and Kamkor to produce 10,000 point machines in Kazakhstan

The joint venture, KazElectroPrivod, equally owned by Alstom and its Kazakh partner Kamkor, has signed a contract worth €90 million(1) with Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), the Kazakhstan national railway company, for the supply of 10,000 point machines over a 10-year period starting in 2013. The point machines, which allow a train to change tracks, are essential in any rail network. The contract was signed today in the presence of the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, during his visit to Astana.

In January 2013, Alstom and Kamkor, an industrial subsidiary of KTZ in charge of rolling stock maintenance, created a 50/50 joint venture specifically for the production of point machines. The KazElectroPrivod joint venture will be based in Almaty, in the south of the country, at the Almaty Wagon Repair Plant, owned by Kamkor and specialised in railway maintenance activities.

The first point machines will be imported from Alstom’s plant in Bologna (Italy), while the existing workshop is rebuilt to suit the needs of the new production. The production of a large share of components will be gradually localised, following Alstom’s strategy to geographically expand to get closer to its customers.

Two units of Alstom P80 point machines have been operating successfully for two years at the Astana railway station and have proven to be reliable and suitable for Kazakhstan. The Alstom point machines require very little maintenance. Their mechanism is protected from ice and snow and does not require heating, which makes them very suitable for operation in severe weather conditions.

“With this first signalling project for Alstom in Kazakhstan, we are gaining a foothold in the promising Kazakhstan signalling market, and to a larger extent, in the neighbouring markets as well”, said Bernard Gonnet, Senior Vice President of Alstom Transport in the CIS. “Our point machines are proof of Alstom’s commitment to bringing the best product and modern technologies to the transport market in CIS”.

With 14,000 km of track, the Kazakh railway network is the world’s third longest using the 1,520 mm track gauge (Russia and CIS) and represents a substantial market for point machines. This Alstom signalling equipment could also serve other CIS countries.

Alstom and KTZ already share substantial projects in Kazakhstan. In December 2012, KTZ and the Alstom-TMH consortium inaugurated their recently-built plant for the production of electric locomotives. The plant will produce the 295 electric locomotives ordered by KTZ, starting in 2013. In October 2012, KTZ awarded Alstom the first service contract for full maintenance, major overhaul and modernisation of 27 KZ4AC passenger locomotives for a 25-year period.

References

1. Alstom’s part in the contract amounts to €65 million and will be booked in Q4 of fiscal year 2012/13.