Russian Railways expects to need 560 new locomotives based on 2018 freight forecast
MOSCOW. July 6 (Interfax) - Russian Railways (RZD) needs to buy 560 locomotives and repair 2,321 based on forecasts for freight shipments in 2018, the company said.
RZD vice president Oleg Valinsky said in early July that the company expects to significantly increase purchases of locomotives in 2018 given the growth of freight shipments. "You see how this year started in regard to forecasts - this is growth, so we are putting together proposals that will be bigger [than the amount of locomotives purchased in 2017]. I think that [in 2018] they will even be well above 500," Valinsky said, adding that RZD plans to acquire the locomotives with its own money.
RZD acquired 502 locomotives in 2015-2016 for 60.2 billion rubles from the National Welfare Fund (NWF), and 491 in 2016 for 67.6 billion rubles. Investment in the purchase of 993 locomotives over the two years totalled 127.8 billion rubles. In 2017, RZD plans to buy 450 locomotives for 57.2 billion rubles.
In recent years, RZD has acquired about three quarters of its locomotives from the Transmashholding (TMH) group, and about a quarter from Sinara Group. France's Alstom owns about 33% of the TMH group's parent company and businessmen Iskander Makhmudov and Andrei Bokarev and Transgroup own the remainer. Sinara, which is controlled by Dmitry Pumpyansky and his partners, has a joint venture with Germany's Siemens called Ural Locomotives.
RZD said in its press release that this subject was discussed on Wednesday at a meeting of the council for RZD's cooperation with transport engineering companies at the Ural Locomotives plant in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk Region. The meeting was held by RZD president Oleg Belozerov.
In addition to purchases of new locomotives, including using competitive methods and the mechanisms of a life cycle contract, the meeting discussed issues concerning servicing and factory repair of locomotives.
"Russian Railways sees its objective as being an efficient partner for clients, a company that is attractive for investors. This is impossible without a quality, balanced locomotive fleet. Therefore, issues of managing reliability and support of locomotives for the whole life cycle become a priority," Belozerov was quoted as saying.
He said RZD has formulated a locomotive fleet balance to 2025 taking into account the growth of freight shipments, as well as the forecasts of its subsidiary, the Institute of Economy and Transport Development. Calculations were done according to the targets for productivity of the operating fleet of freight locomotives - growth of 9.3% by 2020 and 15% by 2025 - and reduction of the size of the unused fleet.
Valinsky said the model for the fleet balance calls for the purchase of 5,389 locomotives and factory repair of 14,884 in the period of 2018-2025.
In addition, the company aims to increase the efficiency of locomotive use. "Increasing productivity will make it possible to reduce requirements to 2025 by 1,968 locomotives. Increasing reliability and efficiency of repairs should lead to the reduction of the fleet by another 1,075. The annual reduction of investment and operating costs from these measures is estimated overall in the amount of about 49 billion rubles," RZD said.
In order to increase the effectiveness of locomotive purchases, RZD plans to switch to using a life cycle contract that includes delivery, maintenance and repair of locomotives.
"The advantage of such an approach is centralization of responsibility for maintenance of locomotives. This will ensure warranty rectification of all identified design flaws by the manufacturer, regardless of the period that has passed since the start of use," Valinsky was quoted as saying by RZD.
