Easier you go – you will be closer – Newspaper Kommersant No. 205 (7406) dated 11/03/2022

The Russian railcar industry, which was completely innovative just a year ago, has returned to the production of standard gondola cars. Due to the shortage of bearings, innovative cars were no longer produced and began to be put aside from movement. As a result, the number of active manufacturers has grown, and shippers are forced to buy a new, albeit a typical, fleet in order to compensate for technological downtime on the network. At the same time, the average transportation distance has fallen, as coal has lost priority at the Eastern landfill. New cargoes by volume do not compensate for these losses.

Maintaining the rush demand for gondola cars has led to the fact that instead of the three main manufacturers, seven plants have already started producing them in 2022, the Institute for Natural Monopoly Problems (IPEM) notes.

“The production of standard gondola cars was also launched by those plants that did not produce gondola cars at all in 2021,” says Vladimir Savchuk, Deputy General Director of IPEM. “For example, 1.9 thousand gondola cars produced by RM Rail were registered in nine months.”

In total, the production of 16.1 thousand cars was registered, the manufacturers are Uralvagonzavod (UVZ), Altaivagon, UWC, RM Rail, Roslavl VRZ, KAVAZ and others.

As Vladimir Savchuk explained, last year the need for gondola cars was covered by the release of innovative models. This year their production was limited by the shortage of cassette bearings, and enterprises returned to the production of standard gondola cars.

As it was reported at a meeting at the CFTTO of Russian Railways on October 4 (“Kommersant” saw the protocol), due to the lack of cassette bearings, operators have already set aside about 10 thousand innovative cars from movement. The head of Infoline-Analytics, Mikhail Burmistrov, notes that the shortage of cassette bearings has led not only to a halt in the production of innovative railcars, but also to the fact that buyers, in the face of uncertainty with the timing of the restoration of deliveries, have shifted to a standard fleet.

If in 2021 21,000 innovative and 1,250 standard railcars were sold on the Russian market, this year, in nine months, only 5,600 innovative and 10,700 standard railcars were sold.

“In fact, since May, innovative railcars have practically not been produced, and only in September UVZ sold the first serial batch,” the expert says.

IPEM also notes that from January to September, the average range of a laden gondola run decreased by 11%, while the wagon turnover in a laden run remained unchanged. As a result, the former number of gondola cars performs less transport work. Vladimir Savchuk explains that the range fell when coal was denied access to the infrastructure of the Eastern test site. The rules for transporting coal eastward changed in March (see Kommersant dated 9th of March and June 29), after which coal exported to the east became a lower priority than cargo from the west, which lost its market in Europe. As a result, Kuzbass, with a quota of 58 million tons, will export only 48.5 million tons to the east this year. The Ministry of Energy notes a decrease in coal export supplies since the beginning of the year by 9.3%, to 147.7 million tons, and predicts a result of 203 million tons at the end of the year, which is 9.1% less than in 2021.

Part of the coal was reoriented to the north-western and southern directions, says Vladimir Savchuk, recalling that Russian Railways indicated an increase in coal loading in the north-western direction in October. There are cases when the range increases, as, for example, when transporting metal in gondola cars to the Far East, Vladimir Savchuk notes, but against the background of losses in coal, these changes are insignificant in volume.

In general, the fleet of gondola cars in January-September increased by 17.7 thousand cars, while only 3.2 thousand were written off, increasing to 606.2 thousand units.

The excess of the rate of commissioning of the fleet over the write-off by 5.5 times “leads, among other things, to an increase in the idle fleet, for example, the number of wagons without being involved in the transportation process for more than two months has increased six times,” noted in IPEM. Deputy General Director of Russian Railways Alexei Shilo in an interview with Kommersant reported that the number of idle cars of the working fleet on the network increased by 38% compared to last year, to 46 thousand units (see “Kommersant” dated October 31).

The head of Infoline-Analytics, Mikhail Burmistrov, notes that the thesis about a huge unused park is irrelevant. In the summer, the surplus did grow, he says, but in August and September, the level of involvement was 552-553 thousand gondola cars – this is a record after March 2022 (555 thousand). In October, the West Siberian Railway was practically paralyzed, Russian Railways cannot cope with loading in Kuzbass and unloading at the Eastern training ground, coal miners have cars with already agreed GU-12 applications on their tracks, and they can only attract an additional fleet. Now the price of a standard car is 3.6–3.7 million rubles, which, with a profitability of 2.5 thousand rubles. without VAT per day is quite comfortable for purchases on lease, the expert notes. He recalls that frosts have already begun and due to the freezing of cargo, problems during unloading will increase, which will increase the demand for gondola cars.

Natalya Skorlygina