United Wagon Company sets up transport company UNICON 1520
PJSC “Research and production corporation “United Wagon Company” (“RPC UWC” or “the Holding”) (MOEX: UWGN), the market leader in innovative railcar building in the 1520 mm gauge area, has established UNICON 1520, a transport company to provide tank-container and container shipments.
The railway operator UNICON 1520 will specialize in the arrangement of transport services and multimodal logistics of bulk, including hazardous cargoes. Tank-containers for chemical, petrochemical freights and liquefied hydrocarbonic gases, as well as container flat cars with increased load capacity, including those manufactured by railway holding RPC UWC, will form the core of the new company’s fleet.
UNICON 1520 will render shipping services both inside and outside Russia, in the CIS countries, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Dmitry Bovykin, First Deputy CEO for General Management at United Wagon Company, said, "We see a high potential of growth in container shipment, including transportation of bulk cargoes by tank-containers. The creation of a specialized operator will only further promote flat cars with increased load capacity.”
Victor Ivanov, Executive Director at UNICON 1520, added, “If a freight owner chooses container shipment, they are offered a customized logistics solution and can fully benefit from additional competitive advantages by saving the transshipment costs (these are zero), while having their cargoes reliably protected from contamination and the delivery terms respected.”
Market experts forecast a stable trend towards more containerisation of cargoes in segments with high write-off rates of tank cars within the next five years. Unlike a freight car, a tank-container is more practical in terms of the range of cargoes that can be shipped. Therefore, tank-containers could be used to carry some 4.5 million tons of petrochemical freight annually, currently shipped otherwise.
