Kryukiv Railcar restores freight railcar output in July

Ukraine’s leading railway machinery company Kryukiv Railcar (KVBZ UK) reduced its freight railcar production 3.1x yoy to 1,429 units in 7M14, the company reported via the Interfax-Ukrayina news agency on Aug. 11. The company produced no passenger railcars YTD, while in 7M13 it assembled 55 units. At the same time, the company was involved in modernization of 50 subway railcars for Kyiv during June and July of 2014. Currently, the working mode of the plant is 20 days a month, the report said.

Alexander Paraschiy: The recent operating update suggests that Kryukiv was able to partially recover its production of freight railcars. In July alone, it produced 503 railcar units, which is the best result since August 2013, 68% better vs. June 2014 and 3.3x better than the monthly average level for 1H14. Thus far, we don’t have any basis to expect that the company, which used to produce about 1,000 freight railcars per month in its best times, will be able to restore its market share on the CIS market. But the recent trend looks indeed encouraging.