MMZ, American Meridican plan to jointly design gas engines

Minsk Motor Plant (MMZ trademark) and the American company Meridican are planning to jointly design a gas engine, Director General of the Management Company of the Minsk Motor Plant holding company Nikolai Lobach told reporters, BelTA has learned. On 13 August the chief executives of the two companies held talks with Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich.

"The American continent is important for us as there are many strong auto-makers. Yet the American company Meridican has chosen us as an equal partner. We are planning to not only promote the sale of our products in the American market. Another goal is to switch to gas fuel, and our U.S. partners offered us their engineering solution of gas engines,” said Nikolai Lobach.

Nikolai Lobach explained that the cooperation will be in two phases. The first phase involves the promotion of sale of MMZ diesel engines in the United States market, and the second one provides for the production of gas engines using the joint design. With regard to deliveries of Belarusian diesel engines, the first batch will be shipped to the United States this year. “The project is quite big. This year we are set to deliver more than 2,000 engines of different capacities,” he added.

Viktor Lobach said that all MMZ products are certified and comply with the environmental requirements of the Euro-4 standards. Now the company is working on the Euro 5 and EPA standards, which are required in the United States market.

The Executive Director of the American company Meridican John Joseph Gallagher, for his part, said that there are plans to sign a letter of intent with MMZ on long-term cooperation. Yesterday we visited the Minsk Motor Plant, assessed the quality of products and saw how things are there. This is why we are here and we want to cooperate with this manufacturer, he said.

The company is interested in cooperation with Belarus in other areas as well. These include energy, oil and gas sector and nuclear energy.

Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich said that the MMZ-Meridican project has good prospects. "We know about the achievements of Meridican. Minsk Motor Plant has been gaining momentum. I think you will be interesting partners for each other," he said.

The head of government believes that this project could be a topic for discussion at the Belarusian-American investment forum to be held in September this year. "If Meridican find some more Belarusian partners, we will be very happy. After all, this is an innovative cooperation," added Mikhail Myasnikovich.

The first Belarusian-American investment forum will be held in New York on 22 September. Taking part in the forum will be representatives of the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus, the Finance Ministry, the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the National Bank of Belarus, the Hi-Tech Park and the company that promotes the Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park. Invitations to attend the event were sent to over 500 potential participants.