Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev visit Bearing Factory

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, among visits to a series of Stepnogorsk area facilities, toured the Stepnogorsk Bearing Plant. Stepnogorsk Bearing Plant is the largest bearing manufacturing facility in Kazakhstan. Privatized in 2000, it is a joint venture stock company owned by the European Bearing Corp. (USSR). In the former USSR, Stepnogorsk was known as SPZ-16, the 16th State Ball Bearing Plant, and produced bearings for tanks and tractors. Under European Bearing Corp., Stepnogorsk is the region's largest rail bearing manufacturer, producing 80% of the rail bearings used in CIS countries. Customers include Kazakh Tamir Zholy and other CIS entities. Covering manufacturing floorspace of over 32 hectares (345,000 square feet), Stepnogorsk employs more than 2,100 people. Its yearly output of large cylindrical roller bearings exceeds 2.2 million. Founded in 2000, Moscow-based European Bearing Corp. has three other plants acquired in the same privatization move: Moscow's legendary GPZ-1 (former Bearing Plant #1), another plant in Moscow dedicated to aircraft bearings, and the former VPZ-15 bearing plant in Volzhsky. The largest CIS bearing company, EBC employs more than 10,000 people across the four facilities. While in the city, President Nazarbayev participated in the Stepnogorsk City Festival, the tenth anniversary of the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan.