UWC and inorganic chemicals manufacturer Alpina sign supply contract for gondola cars

Research and production corporation “United Wagon Company” (“UWC”, the “Group” or the “Company”) (MOEX: UWGN), Russia’s largest manufacturer of freight cars1, and Alpina LLC, an inorganic chemicals manufacturer (part of the Concord group of industrial enterprises), have signed a contract for the supply of 50 gondola cars in Q4 of 2020. The Model 12-9853 car mounted on a 25 t axle-load bogie, the subject of the transaction, is the first mass production modification of the conventional gondola car in the UWC Group’s product line since the official launch of Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant.

The 12-9853 gondola car is equipped with bogies with an increased axle load, due to which the payload capacity of the rolling stock has increased up to 75 tonnes, and its operating reliability has also been enhanced. The body volume of the gondola car is 92 m3. These parameters allow transportation of freights in a wide range of densities using the full payload capacity, and transportation of up to 10% more of freight per run compared to the standard rolling stock.

The maintenance interval of the gondola car has increased up to 1 million km (or 8 years). A similar standard model on a 23.5 t axle-load bogie is sent to its first depot repair as early as after 210 thousand km (or 3 years after construction), and to further depot repairs - after 110-160 thousand km (or after 2 years). The experience of operating a new generation gondola car proves the maintenance of the UWC gondola car to cost half as much to its owner than that of a standard car. The statistics for 2019 showed an average run of a Tikhvin gondola car between uncouplings for current uncoupling repairs to have exceeded 200 thousand km, with the wear of major assemblies and parts of the car bogies, which had already run 1 million km before their first scheduled maintenance, still below the established wear limits.

Alexey Stepanov, Commercial Director at Alpina: “The cars on the 25 t axle-load bogies have already become a norm in the railroad transportation industry. Our selection of the rolling stock and supplier was based on a thorough study of the market. An analysis revealed that the new generation cars manufactured in Tikhvin demonstrate high efficiency during operation and a reduced lifecycle cost as compared to other similar standard models. We are looking forward to further successful cooperation with the UWC”.


1Data sourced from INFOLine-Analytics: https://infoline.spb.ru/news/?news=203409