New rail access rules to stimulate private railcar purchases

President Viktor Yanukovych asked state regulators to develop and adopt rules to liberalize access for railcar operators to the nation’s rail infrastructure by end-2012, Ukrzaliznytsya announced in a press release yesterday. In particular, the Ministry of Infrastructure has to develop rules to separate tariffs for the use of railroad infrastructure and transportation services by the end of 2012 (currently tariffs for rail access are combined).

Roman Dmytrenko: The adoption of non-discriminatory access to railroad infrastructure for all operators will be positive for Ukrainian railcar producers, including Kryukiv Wagon (KVBZ UK) and Stakhaniv Wagon (SVGZ UK). The new rules should allow private operators to have more flexibility in terms of options to access Ukraine’s rail infrastructure and economize by using their own railcars, thus stimulating demand for them from private industrial and logistics companies. The Russian market’s transition is indicative: in the three years after the adoption of similar access rules in December 2003, Russian private operators acquired 104,000 freight railcars vs. just 14,500 in the previous three years.