Business news

MINSK, 14 April (BelTA) – Zoomlion Company will build a factory in the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone to make equipment for the Belarusian-Chinese utility vehicles, which are assembled in association with the Belarusian automaker MAZ, BelTA learned from MAZ Director General Dmitry Katerinich.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new factory is scheduled for 15 April.

There are plans to invest about $45 million in building the factory in the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone. The factory is supposed to start making equipment in 2019. The factory will make Chinese-design mounted equipment for municipal vehicles and road construction machines. The equipment will be transported to Mogilev where it will be mounted on Belarusian chassis at spare premises of the Mogilevtransmash enterprise in order to get utility vehicles as the final product.

In the past MAZ and Zoomlion created and certified three vehicle models: two automobile cranes with the lifting capacity of 40 and 60 tonnes and a municipal vehicle. The Belarusian-Chinese tandem intends to focus on developing the lineup of automobile cranes, municipal vehicles, and road construction machines.

The construction of the factory in the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone will increase manufacturing localization. It will no longer be necessary to haul mounted equipment all the way from China. Everything will be made locally, noted Yuri Pivovarov, Director of the joint venture Zoomlion-MAZ. Zoomlion intends to set up a number of joint ventures with MAZ, BelAZ, Gomselmash, and MTZ acting as partners. The China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone will make equipment for all of them.

Belarusian-Chinese utility vehicles will be showcased during the Construction Equipment and Technologies 2017 expo (CTT) in Moscow in June. “We are now working to fix the last few quirks in the chassis and mounted equipment. Once the two components are coupled perfectly, we will have a full-value marketable product with the relevant performance,” added Yuri Pivovarov.

Specialists will have to study the market and work out eight new products by December 2017. Their batch production is supposed to begin in 2018. The utility vehicles will be shipped to regions of Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, other CIS states, and European countries. It is possible that the new vehicles may be sold to Poland and the Baltic states.

The Belarusian-Chinese joint venture OOO Zoomlion-MAZ was registered in Mogilev in February 2017. The company intends to use spare premises of the Mogilevtransmash enterprise to make utility vehicles. The joint venture will make automobile cranes, concrete mixers, and municipal vehicles.