Penza, 5 August 2014. PenzaNews. Production of diesel engines of the American company General Electric is planned in “Penzadieselmash,” said the company’s CEO Vladimir Karpov to governor of the Penza region Vasily Bochkarev during his visit to the factory on Tuesday, 5 of August.

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He added that the engines will be assembled at the new production site, the logistics of which allows mastering production in a relatively short time.

“At the moment, the representatives of General Electric say they do not feel and pressure or restrictions [of sanctions], and confirm that the Russian market is attractive for them. They are interested in modern layout and conveniently constructed production line here,” Vladimir Karpov said.

He added that new site will mostly be used for producing parts for freight locomotives.

“It will make high-tech and modern engines with attractive cost-to-value ratio. Regardless of the situation prevailing in the world today, this project seems to be quite feasible,” the head of the enterprise noted.

According to him, in late August, the technical management of “Penzadieselmash” plans to go to the United States to study the principles of General Electric.

“The opening of the new production site is scheduled for 2015,” Vladimir Karpov clarified.

In his turn, Vasily Bochkarev expressed hope that the American party will not abandon this project in the future.

“It would be great if the overseas business came to the Penza region and mastered the production of more powerful diesel engines,” the governor said.

As news agency PenzaNews reported earlier, “Penzadieselmash” had planned to implement a joint Russian-Finnish project on the construction of a factory for multipurpose diesel engines suitable for train, sea and industry applications.

The planned output of the factory was estimated at 250 to 300 diesel engines a year, with a potential to increase the output to 350 units a year.

In November 2013, Jelko Starcevich, CEO of Wartsila TMX, announced that the first production line will be online by the end of the year, and the equipment testing phase will be completed by January 31, 2014.

However, when the new production site was almost complete, a deal between Wartsila and the American company was announced.

At that time, governor of Penza region Vasily Bochkarev remarked that the diesel engine production project were to become a starting point for the growth of popularity and fame of Penza region in Finland; however, the idea failed to achieve these results.