The first Toyota car factory in Kazakhstan – and the first Toyota assembly platform in Central Asia – will soon begin producing Fortuners, one of Toyota’s off-road vehicles, in a full-cycle assembly plant in Kostanai.
The factory was launched with a gala party on June 11 attended by Minister of Regional Development Bolat Zhamishev, Kazakh First Vice Minister of Industry and New Technologies Albert Rau, Akim (governor) of the Kostanai region Nuraly Saduakassov, Allur Group President Andrey Lavrentyev, Saryarka Avtoprom Joint Stock Company stockholder Yuri Tshai and Toyota representatives. Members of the press were taken on a tour of the factory’s facilities.
The factory is only the second Toyota factory in the Commonwealth of Independent states (CIS). According to the Saryarka Avtoprom representatives, unlike other car factories in Kazakhstan, the new Kostanai complex will also burn battens together, assemble aggregates and paint cars. They also noted that full-cycle car production creates more new jobs for Kostanai locals. As of now, the staff includes more than 100 people.
The new factory is expected to produce 3,000 cars a year, due to the complex process of full-cycle car assembly. The factory’s assembly line can produce eight car bodies per hour. The 1,600 patterns needed for the assembly will be imported from Japan and Thailand. Japanese colleagues have already expressed their willingness to control the standards maintenance on the Kostanai car factory while production process.
The factory will produce cars in five colours in demand among local customers: black, white, grey, dark blue and silver. Prices for the domestically produced vehicles will range from $39,200 to $44,500.
