Orbis Kazakhstan opens $23 mln KIA assembly plant in Nur-Sultan

ALMATY. July 7 (Interfax) - The Orbis Kazakhstan group has opened an assembly plant for KIA commercial vehicles in Nur-Sultan costing 11 billion tenge or $23 million, the group said in a press release.

The company itself provided some of the investment and the rest was borrowed from Sberbank in Kazakhstan.

The plant is the first KIA production line for commercial vehicles in Central Asia and the CIS. The production process will include welding, painting, assembly and interior finishing, according to the press release.

The plant will produce 11,800 KIA Bongo pickup trucks a year, which will be sold in the domestic market and exported to 11 countries, at the first stage.

The new plant will employ 240 people.

In the third quarter of 2023, the company will put into operation the second assembly line which will manufacture caravans, boom trucks, tail lift trucks and manlift trucks. The design capacity of the second line will be about 20,000 vehicles a year, which will increase exports to 16,000 vehicles a year. The second stage of the project will create an additional 200 jobs.