About us

Kazakhstan, as well as over most of the former Soviet Union, faced a liability to renew the fleet of rolling stock. Many options for addressing this issue were considered, as purchasing ready-made locomotives, upgrading existing ones. As a result, when analyzing the needs of states of 1520-gauge zone that is steel mainline of Baltic region and all states of the former Soviet Union, it was decided to launch a new production of locomotives. Locomotive Kurastyru Zauyty Joint Stock Company, a subsidiary of National Company "Kazakhstan Temir Zholy" Joint Stock Company (Kazakhstan Railways) that started up on July 3, 2009, was established under the State program "Forced Industrial-Innovative Development of Kazakhstan".

The plant was one of the first signs of beginning major structural changes in the country's economic growth, departing from raw-material orientation, the beginning of a new history of heavy engineering. The main purpose of the enterprise is making a worthy contribution to the industrial and innovative development and competitiveness of rail transport system in Kazakhstan, as well as providing quality products to the holders of the "1520 zone" rolling stock.

After the conclusion of the agreement with General Electric company (USA) in 2006, specialists of NC "Kazakstan Temіr Zholy", JSC began to develop technical specifications to be met by Kazakhstan locomotive taking into account the climatic characteristics of the region, the rail roadbed, the specificity of transported cargo, the modern environmental requirements, and sanitary standards.

The result of this work: on December 7, 2009 a show of the first single unit freight locomotive of 5th Evolution - TE33A series generation assembled in Kazakhstan was been performed.

Less than two years has gone since that notable date, but in late October, 2011 Kazakhstan facility issued TE33A locomotive with road number 0100.

All locomotives pass a full cycle of testing to conform to the applied specifications and operational safety. After final assembly and painting each locomotive is transferred to the testing site.

The new vehicles are exposed to 19 types of different tests, which include five major areas: testing electrics, mechanical part; checking operation of engine-alternator set as a whole, and the strength of body welds. The final stage - track test on main lines of JSC "NC" "KTZ".

During testing, the modern instruments of high accuracy are utilized.

Now the company is working on building a new test shop, where eight locomotives can pass the entire test cycle at the same time.

The facility design output is 100 freight mainline locomotives a year. The implementation of total facility output is planned by 2014. Then the facility team will consist of over a thousand people.

In order to increase the profitability the enterprise is working actively to increase the proportion of local content in the facility product. At the initial stage the production process was just a "Semi Knock Down" – it was only simple assembly of parts purchased from GE. Today production of platform of the locomotive and a number of other components is fully mastered. Besides manufacture of engine and alternator cabins will be mastered this year. And in the nearest future the process of operator cabin building will be aligned as well.  In the future, it is planned to purchase pipe, cable, and hardware products, brake reservoirs, electrical products from Kazakhstan and Russia manufacturers. By 2013 with the development of bogie frame production there will be increased demand for rolled metal products, the facility will need a large cast - alloy wheels and axles. The demand for paint products, special fluids, diesel oil and diesel fuel will rise continuously. All this will be done to bring the level of the Kazakhstan products proportion in the production minimum to 50% by 2015.

Therefore equipment which can be provided by leaders of the world machine tool industry is used the production. Blast chamber cleans the metal on both sides; bending machine forms a part of any shape; gas, plasma, and laser cutting machines of German and Swiss manufacturers are used for cutting various kinds of metal thickness from 80 to 4 mm and of different densities; in total, to date, more than 1,200 units of various equipment are registered at the enterprise.

Certainly, TE33A, like any machinery requires constant refinement, improvement, therefore the company created design-engineering bureau, whose task is ongoing analysis and adjustments to the production of certain components. The manufacturer is always ready to meet customer requirements and to fix any issue.

One of the main activities of the company is export. Potential buyers of Kazakhstan locomotive are railway administrations and private operators of the 1520 zone. Due to TE33A technical specifications, power, efficiency in the use, compliance to all international environmental standards, the companies of Tajikistan, Latvia, Estonia, Mongolia and other countries show a poignant interest in purchasing freight locomotive produced in Kazakhstan. Issue of hundredth locomotive was marked by another important event. Before, LKZ, JSC and Rohi Ohani Tajikiston, SUE (Tajikistan Railways) signed a contract for six TE33A locomotives purchase. Negotiations for locomotive purchase between LKZ, JSC and Tajikistan side were held in the third quarter of this year, co-workers were given the opportunity to find out more about the technical characteristics of the locomotive at the operation yard in motion. According to Mr. Perminov, the reports of Tajikistan Railways locomotive crew were only favorable.