Business news

“The new assembling plant of Gomselmash will open in the near future. Attending the opening ceremony in Hebei Province will be the ambassador of Belarus to China and Belarus' deputy industry minister. We expect that the first batch of 75 machines will be manufactured by the year-end 2015,” Dmitry Korchik noted. In his words, Gomselmash has already prepared vehicle kits for delivery to China. These are mainly grain harvesters and fodder harvesters modified to meet the needs of Chinese consumers.

Belarus already has assembling plants in China: AVIC-BelAZ Mining Machines co-founded by Belarus’ OAO BelAZ (50%) and AVIC International Aero-Development Corporation (50%) and the Belarusian-Chinese joint venture Harbin Dongjin Minsk Tractor Co. that opened in the Chinese city of Harbin in August 2010. Another plant, Harbin Dongjin Gomel Agricultural Machine Company, was co-founded by Gomselmash (50%) and Dongjin Group (50%). “These enterprises are facing certain difficulties caused by the current global crisis. If we speak about BelAZ, coal production has fallen and the orders for quarry machines in China also have dropped. Still, BelAZ jointly with its partner is taking part in a couple of tenders for the supply of dump trucks. We expect that the demand for quarry machines will recover in late 2015-early 2016,” Dmitry Korchik said.

As for the production of agricultural machines, the Deputy Industry Minister noted that it depends on subsidies from the Chinese province. “We are facing some difficulties that have led to a decline in the supplies of machinery this year. There were some complaints about the quality of tractors, and we have already settled the issue. All the warranted and post-warranted equipment was fixed in spring. Minsk Tractor Works is ready to resume the supplies if there are orders and payments,” Dmitry Korchik explained.