CORRECTED: Siemens may supply metro cars to Moscow from Austria, then via JV
(source in second paragraph adjusted, at the request of Siemens)
MOSCOW. Nov 28 (Interfax) - If it wins a tender to supply the Russian capital with metro cars, Siemens will deliver the cars first from Austria and will later look into setting up a joint venture in Russia.
"If the company wins the metro tender, the first cars will be supplied from the plant in Vienna, and then Siemens will look into organizing a joint venture with a Russian company in the central region or even in Moscow," the Union of Railway Machinery Producers said in its corporate magazine.
Siemens and Russian Machines plan to set up a joint company to produce Moscow metro cars. "The Russian capital's government announced it was planning to buy up to 3,000 new metro cars in the period to 2020 [a tender is expected at the end of 2013]. Siemens and Russian Machines plan to join forces to participate in the tender and therefore plan to set up a joint venture in Moscow region," the companies said a joint press release in September.
The companies produced a model of a new train car for the capital's subway. It will be presented at a rail forum currently being held in Moscow's Scherbinka area.
Siemens is prepared to localize in Russia the production of subway cars in the event Moscow places an order, company President in Russia Dietrich Moeller said this time last year.
Moeller said that producing this kind of rolling stock would be justifiable if at least 900-1,000 are required. The German company considers a subway car tender in the Moscow region a priority, he said. The Inspiro was presented in 2010. Production of the trains involves the use of light constructions and modern couplings that allow power consumption to be lessened.
Moeller also said that it might not only be rolling stock supplied to the Metropolitan, but also services in the build-up of infrastructure, including power-supply, the introduction of energy-saving technology, and means of automation.
The Union of Railway Machinery Producers was created in 2007 as a noncommercial partnership for coordinating the operations of sector enterprises. Among its founders are OJSC Russian Railways (RZD) , TransMashHolding (TMH), Tractor Plants, and Russian Transport Machine-building Corporation. The Union now has more than a hundred Russian and foreign members that account for around 90% of the railway equipment produced in the country.
