AKIPRESS.COM - Kazakh machine-building enterprises produced 553 billion tenge (US$1.4 billion) in goods in the first half of 2019, Astana Times reported.

The products are nearly 100-percent localised and offer a wide range of equipment, up to three and half times cheaper than imported items.

The country’s machine-building enterprises produce an entire range of agricultural machinery, according to the Kazakh Union of Mechanical Engineers. Don Mar Lisakovsky manufactures grain reapers which are nearly 100-percent localised.

AgromashHolding Kostanai manufactures products with varying degrees of localisation. Its seeders are 90-percent localised; harvesters, over 40 percent, and manufactured components and assemblies, including trolleys for reapers, pick-ups, tractor counterweights, quickly wearing parts, tilting cameras and pulleys, up to 100 percent.

Then Minister of Agriculture Umirzak Shukeyev visited the enterprise in 2018 to become acquainted with its production. He noted the ministry will support only those manufacturers that are actually engaged in production, rather than bolting.

SemAZ produces MTZ tractors, Kokshetau manufactures KAIK sowing complexes, trailers, balers, attachments and other implements, and AVAGRO makes sprayers.

Kazakh tractor and harvester manufacturers have signed an industrial assembly agreement, which imposes mutual obligations on them to localise production in return for preferences.