Kryukiv Railcar wins UAH 1 bln tender for Kyiv subway car upgrade

Ukraine’s leading railway machinery firm, Kryukiv Railcar (KVBZ UK), signed a deal with the Kyiv city administration to modernize 50 subway cars by the end of October, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on March 10. The gross value of the deal is UAH 1.02 bln. Last year, Kryukiv Railcar modernized 95 railcars for the Kyiv subway.

Alexander Paraschiy: The modernization contract seems to be the most important deal for Kryukiv in 2015, when orders for its core products – freight and passenger railcars – are non-existent. Having production capacity of up to 1,000 freight railcars per month, the company only produced eight units in January amid absent demand from Russian freighters, who used to be Kryukiv’s core clients. The company’s capacity for passenger railcar production is idle as well. At this stage, the plant’s only hope for business lies in big orders from Ukraine’s railway monopoly or the Ministry of Defense, which have yet to come.