The cars will receive Asian bearings – Newspaper Kommersant No. 225 (7426) dated 05.12.

The Council for Railway Transport of the CIS countries allowed Chinese and Uzbek tapered bearings to be used for the repair of innovative cars. Importers interviewed by Kommersant are ready to satisfy almost all the needs of the Russian market for these products, even without taking into account the manufacturers available in the Russian Federation. Operators are talking about the high price of this key part, which increases by more than 50% when imported due to duties. However, according to experts, the issue of price is no longer as important as the need to return the idle innovation park to operation.

The Council for Railway Transport of the CIS member states (a body that unites the railway administrations of countries with a “Russian” gauge of 1520 mm), following a meeting held on November 24-25, allowed the use of cassette bearings of Uzbek and Chinese production for the repair of wheel sets of innovative cars.

Bearings manufactured by the Uzbek joint venture SPZ-Bearings, as well as the Chinese Luoyang LYC Bearing Co., are allowed for use. (LYC) and Wafangdian Bearing Group Corp. (ZWZ) through the official representatives of these enterprises in Russia – the New Car Repair Company, Garant Rail Service (GRS) and Severtranscom.

Bogies of innovative railcars (with increased load capacity) are equipped with cassette bearings – this is about 15% of the entire fleet. Only foreign manufacturers of cassette bearings worked on the territory of the Russian Federation, which, after the outbreak of hostilities, either closed down or transferred control to Russian management (see “Kommersant” from March 31 and April 24). In October, operators estimated the number of innovative railcars suspended due to lack of bearings at 10,000 units. Due to the shortage of bearings, car builders, who produced almost only innovative cars in 2021, returned to the production of standard models (see “Kommersant” dated November 3).

The demand of the Russian market for cassette bearings is estimated at 350-450 thousand pieces per year: they are used both for the production of new innovative cars and for the repair of existing ones. The peak of repairs should come in 2023, when 30,000 innovative railcars will need to be repaired (see “Kommersant” dated April 24). A significant part of the demand is ready to close domestic factories. As Gudok reported in October, EPK-Brenko promises to present a fully localized bearing by the summer-autumn of 2023 and confirms its readiness to produce 300,000 bearings per year. Tek-kom proizvodstvo (former SKF LLC) says about 100 thousand units per year with a possible increase to 120-140 thousand units.

But importers are ready to cover all the needs of the Russian market for cassette bearings with their offer.

SPZ-Bearings told Kommersant that the plant could supply 400,000 cartridge bearings to Russia in 2023. They specified that the issue of using cassette bearings manufactured by SPZ-Bearings in the construction of new innovative cars is being discussed.

GRS General Director Nikolai Koshelev told Kommersant that the company plans to import about 50,000 bearings from China in 2023. “Supplies of Chinese products for gas distribution stations are not new,” he added. “Our company has extensive experience in working and importing components for freight cars from China – since 2019 we have been supplying solid-rolled railway wheels to Russia and have been working on the issue of supplying bearings and their certification”.

However, according to market participants, the price at which imported bearings are offered is too high: one of Kommersant’s interlocutors talks about 60-70 thousand rubles, the other – about a price reaching up to 100 thousand rubles.

Nikolai Koshelev says: “As for the pricing policy, of course, it will largely be dictated by the market. It should be noted that the final cost of a bearing is significantly affected by import duties, including anti-dumping duties, which together amount to 52%. Operators have repeatedly called for the abolition of the duty, but the Ministry of Industry and Trade believed that this would lead to a halt in the work of domestic producers (see “Kommersant” dated August 31).

According to Mikhail Burmistrov, head of Infoline-Analytics, in 2023, taking into account the plans of domestic enterprises to produce cassette bearings, there will be no problems with their provision. He assesses the news about the admission of Chinese and Uzbek bearings as positive, because as a result, the consumer will have a choice. Mr. Burmistrov believes that even if the cost of imported bearings is somewhat overestimated, this problem is much less significant than the problem of downtime of innovative cars, where losses amount to 3.5-4 thousand rubles. per car per day.

Natalya Skorlygina