OREANDA-NEWS. December 25, 2012. As part of their strategic partnership, Daimler’s commercial vehicle division and Russian truck manufacturer KAMAZ have signed a contract covering the supply of engines and axles for the Russian company’s trucks and buses. As a result, KAMAZ will now receive OM 457 truck diesel engines and M 906 bus natural gas engines. The contract also encompasses the delivery of front and rear axles for trucks and buses to the Russian manufacturer, whose headquarters are located in Naberezhnye Chelny in the Russian Republic of Tartastan. The completely assembled components will be supplied to Russia by the Mercedes-Benz plants in Mannheim (engines), Kassel, and Gaggenau (axles).

The partners expect the delivery volume to exceed in a first step 7,000 engines and 15,000 axles per year.

Emphasizing the advantages of the latest partnership project, Stefan E. Buchner, who is responsible for global powertrain, procurement and manufacturing engineering at Daimler Trucks, said: “Our modular component system provides the right solutions for our partner. Through our technological expertise and skill, we are helping KAMAZ to expand its strong position on the Russian market.”

Sergey Kogogin, General Director of OJSC KAMAZ, also spoke highly of the importance of this project. “The signing of the agreement for axles and engines with Daimler opens up great opportunities for our company”, said Kogogin. “KAMAZ will be able to offer its customers the products that would meet the world quality standards and set new benchmarks for the Russian truck industry. Time has shown that many years of our cooperation with Daimler as our strategic partner are yielding positive results.”

The EEV (Enhanced Environmentally Friendly Vehicle) compliant natural gas engines with an output of 170 kW (231 hp) to 205 kW (279 hp) and the Euro V compliant diesel engines with a performance of 260 kW (354 hp) to 335 kW (456 hp) will from now on complement the KAMAZ engine lineup.

In regard to providing axles to Daimler’s Russian cooperation partner, today’s supply contract is an intermediate step. In the future, the two companies plan to manufacture axles in Russia through a joint venture. This way, Daimler’s commercial vehicle division plans to set up and expand a component network in the country.

The two companies are steadily intensifying their already close cooperation. Last June, Daimler and KAMAZ announced the signing of a licensing agreement covering the supply of Mercedes-Benz Axor cabs, whereby production will be gradually localized. The cabs will be used in a new KAMAZ truck generation, which is to be launched on the Russian market next year.

The strategic partnership between Daimler Trucks and KAMAZ was established in 2008. The joint ventures Mercedes-Benz Trucks Vostok (MBTV) and Fuso Kamaz Trucks Rus (FKTR) commenced operations a little less than two years later. The partnership has since grown and prospered on several levels. Since its inauguration in 2011, the MBTV plant in Chelny has manufactured Mercedes-Benz Actros, Axor, Atego and Unimog trucks in series production. FKTR produces the Fuso Canter light-duty truck on site. Since increasing their stake in the Russian company in June 2010, Daimler AG and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development now jointly hold 15 percent of the shares in KAMAZ.