25 Jun 2024 12:13

Dniprovagonmash produces 177 freight cars in Q1, sees net profit fall 80%

MOSCOW. June 25 (Interfax) - Dniprovagonmash, a major Ukrainian freight car manufacturer controlled by the TAS financial and industrial group of businessman Sergei Tigipko, saw its net profit plunge 81% year-on-year to UAH7.17 million in the first quarter of 2024, Ukrainian media reported, citing the company's financial statement.

Net revenue slumped 4.4% to UAH379.24 million, gross profit fell 42.4% to UAH34.26 million and operating profit dropped 75% to UAH9.31 million.

Dniprovagonmash built 177 freight cars in the quarter and sold 157 (figures for the first quarter of 2023 were not provided). The company produced 28% of Ukraine's freight cars. Its main competitors are Kryukovsky Railway Car Building Works, OMZ-Karpaty and divisions of Ukrainian Railways, the report said.

The company's exports totalled UAH1.6 million, or just 0.4% of all sales.

Demand for freight cars in Ukraine continued to decline in the first quarter, the company said, attributing this in part to the cancellation of caps on the service life of railcars in 2021, the deterioration of the operation of the grain corridor in Greater Odessa ports and blockades on western border crossings by European farmers.

Dniprovagonmash produced 378 freight cars in 2023, 34.5% fewer than in 2022. The company has capacity to build 9,000 freight cars annually.

TAS Group's Cyprus-based subsidiary T.A.S. Overseas Investments Limited acquired 40.03% of TransAnt GmbH, a joint venture formed by OBB Rail Cargo Group and Voestalpine Stahl GmbH to manufacture innovative and cost effective freight cars, in February 2023 and increased its stake to 61% in the spring of 2024.

The official exchange rate was UAH40.45/$1 on June 24.