Kryukiv’s freight railcar output increases 2.5x in January

Kryukiv Wagon (UX: KVBZ UK) increased its production of freight railcars by 2.5x to 593 units in January, the company reported on Friday. The manufacturer, at the same time, said it made just two passenger wagons last month, vs. five in January 2008. Yegor Samusenko: Kryukiv’s January output is in line with the general uptrend in Ukrainian railcar manufacturing. Demand for freight railcars from Russia has revived since autumn when cargo traffic started improving there toward pre-crisis levels. Kryukiv Wagon has now been producing more than 500 railcars per month for four consecutive months and targets 6,000 this year. We remain cautious on the rapid pace of recovery in demand for railcars and stay with our projections of 5,000 railcars in 2010E. We maintain our USD 3.5 per share target price (18% upside).