Regional authorities will purchase twice as many new elevators under the housing overhaul program

By the end of this year, as part of major housing renovations, regional authorities will purchase up to 20 thousand new elevators, which should replace those whose service life has reached 25 years, the industry association predicts. This is twice as much as last year, when funding for the equipment renewal program was noticeably reduced. But even at this rate, it will not be possible to replace outdated equipment in apartment buildings, market participants warn: by 2025, over 100 thousand elevators need to be replaced.

In 2023, regional authorities under the housing overhaul program will purchase up to 20 thousand new elevators to replace those that have already served for more than 25 years, according to a report by the Russian Elevator Association (RLO). This is twice as much as a year earlier. In 2020, 15.8 thousand units of such equipment were purchased, in 2021 – 18.4 thousand, the association specified.

According to RLO estimates, already in January-August 2023, regional authorities purchased almost 15 thousand elevators at auctions for 57.6 billion rubles. The most – 3.9 thousand units of equipment worth 17.5 billion rubles – were purchased by Moscow, followed by the Nizhny Novgorod region (2.4 thousand for 8.7 billion rubles), St. Petersburg (1.1 thousand for 6. 7 billion rubles) and the Moscow region (1 thousand for 4.9 billion rubles).

Initially, based on the results of this year, it was planned to reduce the volume of purchases due to a decrease in funding, which began in 2022, notes Alexander Buslaev, project manager at NEO Center. This year, the financing situation has improved somewhat, says Infoline-Analytics CEO Mikhail Burmistrov, adding that this should lead to an increase in the volume of purchases.

The current increase could also be influenced by installment payment programs for the supply of elevators as part of the overhaul of housing, according to the Shcherbinsky Elevator Plant (ShchLZ; part of Dom.RF), pointing out that the pilot project was implemented at the beginning of 2023 in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Some regions have begun to receive financial support from the Territorial Development Fund for the purchase of elevators, while others are using factoring, adds METEOR Lift CEO Igor Mayorov.

The restoration of purchases of elevators also affected the production of such equipment. According to Rosstat, in January-July 2023, production in the country increased by 23.8% year-on-year, to 14.5 thousand units. After foreign equipment suppliers left the Russian market, local companies filled the vacated niche, notes Moscow Electrical Equipment and Elevators JSC (part of PIK Group).

Nevertheless, elevator factories in Russia are still underutilized, says RLO CEO Pyotr Kharlamov. According to him, developers are not yet ready to use exclusively Russian products. Developers have reoriented themselves from European markets mainly to Asian markets, notes the owner of the Yes! Group of Companies. Development” Denis Gros. At the same time, he adds, the price of Chinese equipment is 20–30% lower, although the reliability and safety are not inferior to European equipment.

Despite the increase in purchases of elevators by regional authorities, it will not be possible to replace all the equipment whose service life expires by 2025, warns Pyotr Kharlamov. According to State Duma deputy Vladimir Koshelev, 107.5 thousand units with a service life of more than 25 years require replacement by mid-February 2025. At the current pace of procurement, this is an impossible task, agrees Alexander Buslaev.

To do this, it is necessary to change 30 thousand pieces of equipment annually, Mr. Kharlamov calculated. In addition, in his opinion, it is necessary to extend the technical regulations that determine the service life of outdated elevators until 2027–2030. “This is inevitable, although the number of breakdowns is growing,” says Mikhail Burmistrov.

Petr Kharlamov predicts that in 2024, regional authorities will purchase 22 thousand replacement elevators, and for new construction, developers will purchase another 22–24 thousand units of equipment. ShchLZ expects that next year the demand from developers for elevators will increase for projects that will be completed in 2025.

Daria Andrianova