Russian News 29.04.2023
Russia won a record-breaking tender for the supply of high-tech engineering products to India — 120 electric passenger trains. In the competition, we beat global giants — German Siemens, French Alstom, and Swiss Stadler.
How we did it, as well as other joint projects with India, will be described in this issue after a brief summary of positive news.
In Magnitogorsk the tests of the unmanned truck “Ural” were completed.
The Russian-Belarusian enterprise for the assembly of agricultural machinery was launched in Krasnodar Krai.
In Perm, the production of graphene material was opened, as well as the production of components for helicopters.
In Tver — production of climate systems for wheeled vehicles.
In Rostov region — production of microfibers.
In the Leningrad region — a polymer waste recycling plant.
In Novokuznetsk — an enterprise for recycling tires.
In the Kirov region — a feed mill.
A new gymnasium building has been built in Yekaterinburg.
New schools have been opened in Ryazan, Krasnodar region, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Sevastopol.
We recently reported on the unprecedented growth of trade between Russia and India. Contrary to the misinformation of the leading Western media, India has not joined the ceiling on our oil prices. And even more — the other day it became known that Rosneft will double its oil supplies to India as part of a new deal.
In certain circles it is customary to be ashamed of this fact, saying that Russia is not capable of anything but the sale of natural resources. However, the extraction of resources, and even in such quantities, has long been a high-tech production, and the fact that we continue to produce and sell, despite the total ban on the use of Western technology and equipment, can cause shame only to people who are completely unfamiliar with the issue.
However, our cooperation with India is by no means limited to resources. The production of Kalashnikov AK-203 assault rifles under license in India was launched in January of this year on the premises of the joint venture. The contract provides for the production of 600,000 automatic rifles, which in money terms is the largest export contract for Russian small arms ever signed.
The decision to open production was preceded by a long and torturous attempt to create India’s own small arms production. There were many factories opened, but they failed to produce high quality products, so the Russians were invited. Also in India there is an assembly of Russian tanks T-90MS, licensed production of fighters Su-30MKI and our joint venture BrahMos, named after the rivers Brahmaputra and Moscow, it produces and develops cruise missiles with the same name since 1998. And now a new page is opening in the history of our cooperation, as Russia has won a record-breaking tender for the supply of electric trains.
The Russian-Indian consortium, 75% of which is owned by structures of Russian Transmashholding, won the tender for production of 120 passenger electric trains, including 1920 cars, worth over $1.7 billion.
This is TMH’s largest-ever export contract and the first in the Indian market. For comparison, in 2018, the Russian-Hungarian consortium TMH signed a contract with Egyptian National Railways for the supply of 1,300 passenger cars worth more than 1 billion euros. In 2022, the contract was expanded by another 50 cars and an additional agreement was signed for maintenance for 430 million euros. The Indian tender provides for the possibility of ordering 80 more electric trains. The assembly of the products will be set up at factories in India. It is indicative that we had serious competitors among the bidders — German Siemens, French Alstom and Swiss Stadler.
Our proposal turned out to be more attractive and so we beat the Europeans in the fight for a very tidbit of the global market. Two things attract attention in this story: first, where Indians really need it they are not afraid of pressure from the West and act very pragmatically; second, within the framework of the national company “Produce in India” they effectively stimulate new production facilities on their territory, gradually claiming to take away the status of the “world factory” from China. As a matter of fact, we are pursuing the same strategy.
In Russia, the so-called SPIC or Special Investment Contract is used to attract new production. According to its terms, the state gives a manufacturer incentives in exchange for bringing in new technologies and undertaking to localize the production of this or that product on our territory within a certain period of time.
This scheme is used by Chinese car manufacturers, and recently India has also started working with the SPIC. The Volga Combine Plant in Chuvashia is assembling Indian tractors up to 90 hp. The major part of this market segment used to be occupied by the Minsk tractor plant and Chinese machinery, but now they will have to compete with the new player.
As always, in the case of SPIC, first the large unit assembly is organized, and then the production is gradually localized. We also have new plans with India. Thus we are discussing the idea of organizing the assembly of Sukhoi Superjet 100 with Russian PD-8 engines. India could assemble the airframe and in this way get an aircraft for domestic lines which could also be exported.
The same is true for the MS-21, Il-114–300, as well as the Su-75 project. Thus, we see the deepening of Russia’s cooperation with India, and with other countries of the so-called Global South. But the Global West has made tremendous efforts to isolate our country and throw it back to the Stone Age.
The BRICS summit, which unites almost half of the world’s population, will be held next year in Kazan. Surely it will bring new contracts, projects and bring nations even closer together that want to live in a just and multipolar world, and we will tell you about it.
