OREANDA-NEWS. November 10, 2009. A credit agreement has been signed between State Corporation Bank of Development and Foreign Economic Activity (Vnesheconombank) and OJSC Autodiesel (YaMZ), a part of GAZ Group. According to the signed agreement, Vnesheconombank provides a credit to Yaroslavl Motor Plant to develop a project on new YaMZ-530 engines production, reported the press-centre of GAZ Group.

The project includes development and series production setup of YaMZ-530 medium-duty in-line diesel engines Euro-3, 4, 5, 6 in Yaroslavl. The new engine family consists of four-cylinder and six-cylinder in-line diesel engines with displacement of 1.1 litres per cylinder and power of 120 to 315 hp.

YaMZ-530 engine family was developed by engineers of OJSC Autodiesel with involvement of AVL List GmbH (Austria), a famous engineering company, at the initial stage of the project. Being a Russian intellectual property, the project makes it possible to use YaMZ-530 engines without any restrictions for various vehicles, including military equipment in the RF military and industrial complex.

Due to own investments of GAZ Group over 3 bln. rub., the project has reached the final stage of preproduction. Contracts for almost all equipment ensuring production capacities of the first phase have been signed, and almost all equipment has been produced. A considerable part of the credit will be used to finish construction of the plant where new YaMZ-530 engines will be made. It will be the first engine plant to be built in the RF for the last 35 years with modern equipment and process automation at the level of the best international engine manufacturers.

According to the approved work schedule, it is planned to make a preproduction batch of engines in the second half of 2010. It is planned to start series production of new engines in the first quarter 2011.

This project is required by domestic economy as almost all production volume of the first phase (up to 50 thousand engines and powertrains per year) has been covered by orders from automotive companies. The list of YaMZ-530 customers includes companies of GAZ Group, as well as outside customers: these are major manufacturers of vehicles, tractors, agricultural equipment and special vehicles in the RF, Republic of Belarus and Ukraine.

The new engine project of GAZ Group complies with the state policy in the area of transport environmental safety and has been acknowledged as strategic by the RF Government for machine building development in Russia.

Bo Andersson, GAZ Group President: "YaMZ-530 engines have a high potential for export and replacement of imported products on the RF market".

"Production of new engines in Autodiesel will be a basis for development of modern component manufacturers in Russia: the level of component localization in the RF will be from 30% at the initial stage of production assimilation up to 60-70% when the planned capacity is reached", - said Bo Andersson.

The new company will have about 1,500 highly qualified jobs that will be taken by specialists going through retraining and advance training under GAZ Group program for reduction of social tension at the company’s plants during financial crisis.