KTZ and Wabtec ink Kazakhstan’s biggest-ever locomotive deal

Kazakh Railways, Kazakhstan’s national rail operator, and Wabtec, an American tech company, have signed a major locomotive deal valued at 4,2 billion US dollars. The agreement, which would be the biggest locomotive deal in the country’s history, includes the delivery of new locomotives, but also servicing and maintenance.
Among the new locomotives to be supplied is the new TE33AT series. Kazakhstan will build those locomotives on home soil. Wabtec has a locomotive plant in the capital city, Astana. The TE33AT locomotives are engineered to perform efficiently in Kazakhstan’s varied climate, offering high power, energy efficiency, and reliability.

The acquisition will enable KTZ to boost traction availability and increase freight turnover, while also reducing locomotive fleet depreciation from 49% to 32% by 2030. That will play a role in improving KTZ’s financial performance. The company is heavily indebted, and the agreement will help to optimise its operating costs.

Large but not extraordinary

Valued at 4,2 billion dollars, the locomotive deal is the biggest in Kazakhstan’s history, but it also ranks among the biggest in global terms. Despite that, the signing of the deal is not extraordinary in itself, argues Russian rolling stock expert Sergey Belov in an interview with LogiStan.

“It is a continuation of supplies of diesel locomotives and service offering, which Wabtec has been doing in Kazakhstan since the end of the 00s and is gradually growing its presence in the country”, Belov said.

To the expert, the deal is just a prolongation of an already existing collaboration. “What’s more, the ‘hard’ part of the contracts and timeframes are not announced publicly, the reality will only be possible to understand on the basis of official portfolio benchmarks of Wabtec orders at the end of the quarter or even at the end of the year.”