Parties to the agreement plan to form a joint venture company to produce approximately 400Evolution Series diesel engines a year to serve rail, marine and stationary power customers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)region. GE’s Evolution Series diesel engine is one of the company’s most technologically advanced, fuel efficient, and low emissions engines to-date. It is also one of GE’s most prominent “Ecomagination” products. “Ecomagination”is a GE-wide initiative to help customers meet demand for more energy-efficient products while generating profitable growth for the company.

Lorenzo Simonelli, President of GE Transportation said: “We are excited about the prospect of expanding our global manufacturing footprint and to supplying our leading Evolution Series diesel engines to customers in Russia, Kazakhstan and other countries. We are looking forward to advancing sustainable infrastructure growth in the rail, marine and stationary power industries across the CIS region.”

The joint venture partners plan to invest approximately $90million to build a new, approximately 97,000 square feet diesel engine facility in Astana, Kazakhstan. The new JV partnership intends to manufacture, sell, service, and provide spare parts for Evolution Series diesel engines.  The plant is scheduled to be operational by the end of 2013 with the first diesel engines scheduled to roll off its assembly lines by early 2014. 

KTZ’s wholly owned subsidiary JSC Lokomotiv Kurastyru Zauyty (LKZ) already operates a 460,000 square feet locomotive assembly facility in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital and second largest city. The plant can assemble approximately 100 Evolution Series locomotives a year.

The Evolution Series locomotive represents a $400 million investment by GE over eight years.The innovative diesel electric locomotive is equipped with a 12-cylinder diesel engine that produces the same 4,400 horsepower as its 16-cylinder predecessor.