Stadler Rail wins billion-franc night train order from Kazakhstan

Stadler Rail has been active in Kazakhstan for some time - the new order is a new dimension. (symbolic image) SRF / Fabian von Allmen

Stadler Rail is building almost 600 carriages for night trains in Kazakhstan, which is increasingly attractive for Swiss companies.

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It’s shift change time at the Stadler Rail factory in Astana, Kazakhstan. A good 400 employees have recently been working here on almost 600 carriages for night trains. Kazakhstan wants to expand its railway infrastructure. The Thurgau-based railway manufacturer Stadler Rail is also helping with this. The order is worth over CHF2 billion ($2.5 billion).

Phillip Brunner, head of Division Central Europe at Stadler Rail, rushes from meeting to meeting this evening. “We were able to take over the plant here and rebuild it accordingly,” he says.

Brunner already has experience in setting up factories in post-Soviet countries. Among other things, he helped set up the plant in Belarus. Stadler had to abandon the factory due to the sanctions against the country. “Nevertheless, we were able to benefit from Minsk,” says Brunner. Dozens of employees have been taken on board; the plant manager here in Kazakhstan, for example, is a Belarusian. “I’ve been working with Vladimir for over 12 years now,” says Brunner.

Swiss government wants to deepen relations

Kazakhstan wants to diversify its economy, become less dependent on oil and gas, its main export, and promote tourism, for example. Swiss companies should also help in this endeavour. According to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Switzerland ranks third in terms of investment in the country. Around 40 Swiss companies are active in the country. But more are to come.

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This is why Economics Minister Guy Parmelin travelled to the capital Astana for the Swiss-Kazakh Business Forum.

“I am here today to deepen relations between our countries,” he said in front of the assembled Kazakh ministers, Swiss lobbyists and company bosses. It is important to Parmelin to hear directly from local companies about the problems they encounter. “That way we can see whether we can improve the conditions for Swiss companies.”

Relations with gold in particular have deepened, albeit with a few question marks, as our research showed:

Swiss interest

Swiss company bosses are interested. Markus Menzi from the cable car company Bartholet is interested in infrastructure projects in the south of the country. “Kazakhstan is a future market for us. There are interesting tourist areas and there is also potential for our products in urban transport,” he says.

The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche is also active in the country. Recently, medicines produced in Switzerland have been packaged in Kazakhstan. It was forced to do so: the country demands that a certain amount of added value is created locally.

Goods transport more attractive due to Ukraine war

Kazakhstan is currently moving into the focus of Western investors, says economist Kassymkhan Kapparov. Kazakhstan borders Russia to the north and China to the south-east.

The sanctions against Russia are making the transport of goods via Kazakhstan more attractive. However, at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, it was precisely these exports that were suspected of circumventing the sanctions.

“Kazakhstan’s biggest trading partners are the US and the EU. The government will not take the risk of becoming the focus of Western sanctions,” says Kapparov. “Because sanctions could paralyse the economy.”

Is Stadler facing the same threat as in Belarus?

Together with Parmelin, Stadler Rail boss Peter Spuhler also visited the factory in the north of the country. When asked whether the factory in Kazakhstan is not threatened with a similar fate to the factory in Belarus, Spuhler said: “As an entrepreneur, you have to take calculated risks.”

However, he believed that the situation in Kazakhstan is different to that in Belarus: “Of course, the geopolitical situation has changed in recent years. But we have a stable situation in Kazakhstan.”

Stadler Rail’s first night trains will soon be running on the 14-hour route to the old capital Almaty.

Adapted from German by AI/ts

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