Belarusian machine tools, IT solutions on display at metalworking expo in Russia

Belarus has brought a wide range of products to the expo, but modern machine tools showcased by several domestic manufacturers at once attract the most attention. For instance, OAO StankoGomel has brought a CNC knee-type milling system labeled as the Union Machine Tool.

The company first presented this unit at a similar event two years ago. Successful sales in both Russia and Belarus followed. On the outside, the machine tool brought to the current expo does not differ much from the one shown previously. However, the difference between the new machine tool and its predecessor is fundamental.

“While the previous machine tool was 98% ‘Union-made’, now it consists of 100% Belarusian and Russian components,” Sergei Nesterovich, Head of the Marketing and External Relations Office at OAO StankoGomel, told BelTA. “But most importantly, the share of the Belarusian components has increased from almost 50% to over 82%. It has been achieved mostly by using an electrical cabinet with a CNC system from the Belarusian enterprise Technikon.”

OOO Technikon is also represented at the national stand. The company specializes in industrial automation. “This is something at the intersection of control systems and information technology,” explained the company’s Director Arkady Shulman. “Our business dimensions in the field of automation are very extensive: agriculture, mining, utilities. For the mechanical engineering industry we manufacture CNC systems for machine tools, test benches for units and assemblies, and control systems for warehouses and conveyors.”

Arkady Shulman believes that Russian partners are interested in the company’s R&D products in the field of mechanization and robotization of machine-building facilities. “We have accumulated significant expertise in this area. We are essentially integrators of such machines, devices, robots, conveyors, and other mechanisms,” he noted.

At the same time, the director emphasized that the products manufactured by the company are custom-made. “Everyone is used to hearing about IT solutions in banking and insurance. However, the IT sphere for engineering solutions is not as popular or widespread. Because if, for example, a gaming software developer has an audience of millions of clients, the software created for a specific manufacturing facility has only one client. This is a solution for a specific manufacturing site. In other words, the product was developed as a single unit and sold as a single unit.”

The Orsha Tool Factory was also featured at the expo. It is closely linked to the machine tool industry. “We are promoting solid carbide cutting tools with various types of coatings on the Russian market. These are milling cutters, drills, coolant-fed drills, and step drills: customers order products depending on what they process,” said the company’s Director Aleksandr Goncharenko.

In his words, the factory’s products have great potential as all mechanical engineering enterprises are now switching to more productive tools. The company’s main partners in the Russian Federation include KamAZ, the Rostov railway car repair plant, and other engineering giants.

“There are prospects on the Russian market: it is developing and growing, and therefore the demand for tools is also growing,” added Dmitry Matyuk, Head of the Marketing Department at the Orsha Tool Factory. “We have carried out modernization and implemented an investment project to manufacture hard-alloy tools. We have achieved quite high quality. Therefore, we plan to enter the Russian market with this tool and compete with both China and Russian manufacturers.”

The Metalloobrabotka 2026 expo was organized by AO Expocentre with the official support of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade. It gathered more than 1,200 companies from eight countries: Belarus, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, China, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and Türkiye.