OREANDA-NEWS. January 9, 2008. An official ceremony has been held to mark the start of construction of a plant for producing the GAZ Group’s YAMZ-530 in-line diesel engines, the company's press service reported.

Series production is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2009.The projected capacity for the first phase of production is 80,000 engines per year, with a subsequent phase bringing output up to 110,000. Projected capacity is expected to be reached by 2012.

Construction of diesel engines at the new company will be organised according to the “3S principle”: mechanical processing of three key components (engine block, cylinder head and crankshaft). The production line for the YAMZ-530 engines will also include the assembly, painting and testing of engines. The construction of a warehouse logistics building is also planned.

The area of the new plant is around 60,000 m2, and the site as a whole occupies some 14 hectares. There will be around 1200 people in total working at the plant.
The GAZ Group's partners for the project are: AVL LIST from Austria for engine design and testing, COMAU from Italy for technical engineering, and Transinzhiniring from Russia for plant design and construction.

When series production begins, some of the materials and components will be sourced from leading European suppliers, but production of materials and components will be transferred to Russia by 2012, once the new engine plant has reached its projected capacity. Production will be organised to take account of the conditions for industrial assembly created by the Russian government’s resolution No. 166. This will allow a reduction to be achieved in customs duties on imports of engine components, and will increase the efficiency of the project as a whole. Powertrains with YAMZ-530 engines must meet the needs of the GAZ Group’s automotive, agricultural and road-building equipment, offering a range of outputs of between 120 and 315 hp, and comply with the environmental standards Euro 3, Euro 4, and in future also Euro 5.

In terms of key consumer specifications (dimensions, specific weight, noise level and service life), YAMZ-530 engines meet the same standards as the best equivalent engines from international manufacturers, and are ideally suited for use in GAZ Group vehicles: GAZ and Ural commercial vehicles, PAZ, KAvZ and LiAZ buses; MAZ trucks from Belarus, tractors, stationary power generating systems, special chassis and road-building equipment.