OREANDA-NEWS. October 17, 2012. Vice-Minister of Transport and Communications of Kazakhstan Kairat Absattarov at an Expert Group Meeting on Progress in Road Safety Improvement gave entrepreneurs advice not to buy Chinese trucks.

In his speech, Kairat Absattarov expressed concern that certain Chinese-made trucks carry excessively heavy loads which destroy Kazakh highways: "To date, we have 18 thousand Chinese dump trucks, 5.6 thousand of them were tested, and breaches were identified in 2 thousand of them." "One in three breaks the rules,” explained the vice-minister. “Retests reveal these breaches again because these penalties are minimal and insignificant for their business." At the same time, he said, KAMAZ trucks with their permissible axial load comply with road service requirements.

Boris Morozov, Chief of Analytical Department of OJSC KAMAZ, notes that designers of KAMAZ vehicles take into account the necessity of road protection. "Of course, an admissible cargo tonnage depends on axial load restrictions. However, we offer our customers, including Kazakh clients, our innovative product, Kamateyner, which can double or triple goods turnover with the same axial load parameters, not over 19 tonnes on a rear bogie," said Boris Morozov.

It should be recalled that Russian experts also confirm that some models of Chinese trucks don’t comply with Russian regulations. On the initiative of the Association of Russian Automakers, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Central Scientific Research Automobile and Engine Institute” tested one of Chinese trucks for compliance with a vehicle certificate. In particular, a SHANQI dump truck tested this August didn’t meet requirements of the Wheeled Vehicle Safety Technical Regulations adopted in Russia. For example, the vehicle doesn’t have an antilock system and an automatic adjustment system which compensates for brake lining friction material wear. Proceeding from these and other specification deficiencies, experts of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Central Scientific Research Automobile and Engine Institute” came to the conclusion that the SHANQI SX3257DR384 dump truck doesn’t comply with the requirements of Paragraphs 1.3.1., 2.1.1.2, 2.1.11.1.2 and 03.08.11 of Appendix № 5 to the Wheeled Vehicle Safety Technical Regulations, and it must not be allowed to operate.

Reference: KAMAZ is a significant player in the truck market of Kazakhstan. AO KAMAZ-Engineering, a subsidiary of OJSC KAMAZ, has been producing KAMAZ vehicles in the Republic of Kazakhstan since 2005. The model line numbers 15 modifications. This year, the company plans to make about 900 vehicles, which is by 15% more than last year.