OREANDA-NEWS. On January 27, 2009 The US company Caterpillar has shown its interest in the cooperation with BelAZ and Minsk Engine Works, said vice president of the company Michael Baunton as he met with Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky, reported the Official website www.government.by.

Sergei Sidorsky reminded the Caterpillar delegation of the first meeting with the company’s representatives at Belarus Investment Forum in London in November 2008. “We discussed a set of approaches that can be implemented in Belarus and outside the country with the help of our leading industrial companies jointly with you company,” he said.

Belarus is ready to discuss the issues of financing possible projects with the American company Caterpillar, Prime Minister of Belarus said.

Vice President of the Caterpillar Company Michael J. Baunton thanked Sergei Sidorsky for an invitation to visit Belarus that the company received at the Forum in London. According to him, the two days they spent in Belarus have been very busy.

The company’s delegation visited Minsk Engine Works and BelAZ. The Caterpillar specialists decided to spend another day in BelAZ. Michael Baunton informed that an engines expert will stay one more day at Minsk Engine Works, too. On January 27, the company’s representatives are to discuss the results of their visit.

Since its inception in 1925, Caterpillar has grown to be the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines. In 2008, the company posted a profit of US50 billion. The company employs 100,000 people worldwide. The 150 production facilities of the enterprise are present on the five continents.

Caterpillar came to the Soviet market in 1973. In 2005, the company launched its activities in the CIS member states. It has set up 4 offices in Moscow, Vladivostok, Khabarovks and Alma-Ata. The company’s distribution network with the branches encompasses more than 100 cities and towns of the CIS with the total of 3,500 employees.

Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation has offices in Russia to assist in product financing as well as supporting projects in the CIS region. It is the first western machine-building concern that set up production facilities manufacturing components in the town of Tosno (the Leningrad oblast) in 2000. More than 700 people are involved in the technological processes and logistics. The first hydraulic excavator was assembled at the company's facility in Tosno in August 2008.

Founded in September 1948, BelAZ mainly offers rock haulers, frontal wheel loaders and bulldozers, tow trucks, special vehicles for underground operations, heavy payload trucks for metallurgy industry and other specialized technological vehicles. Over its history the company has designed over 400 modifications of rock haulers, with the capacity ranging from 27 to 320 tonnes.

Minsk Engine Works is one the CIS leading manufacturers of diesel engines for commercial transport, tractors and special vehicles. The company offers four and six-cylinder row engines of various capacity. MMZ supplies its products to 26 assembly lines of Russian mechanical engineering companies. The company was established in 1963.