Ukraine’s only producer of passenger railcars, Kryukiv Railcar (KVBZ), got state permission to launch production of its new bogie 68-7054 model for subway cars, the company announced May 27. The government is planning for the new bogies to be installed in subway cars as part of a renovation project to be carried out by Kryukiv, which signed a UAH 897 mln contract to modernize 95 Kyiv subway cars in June 2012. It received a down payment from the city related to the deal in March 2013.
Roman Dmytrenko: With the new bogie model getting the green light, we expect Kryukiv will be able to start chassis replacement of Kyiv subway cars, which is scheduled to be completed by end-2014. While the contract will account for less than 10% of Kryukiv’s expected revenue in 2013-14, it will be supportive for Kryukiv’s order book, which started suffering from a decline in demand for its key product, freight railcars. If Kryukiv succeeds, the project is likely to be extended since the Kyiv subway car fleet requiring modernization is estimated at 185-250 units for the next three years.