OREANDA-NEWS. May 18, 2011. Ukrzaliznytsia, the State-owned railway transport monopoly, intends to shift to Luhanskteplovoz and Tbilisi locomotive plant choosing both as prime suppliers of mainline locomotives to upgrade its aging fleet. This was reported by Ukkrzaliznytsia on May 13 after the new strategy of development had been made public. In general, Ukrzaliznytsia intends to replace 400 units of mainline electric locomotives. In particular, the company is going to purchase 10 locomotives by the end-2011, increasing orders up to 50-80 annually after the year 2011. Besides, the state monopoly needs to upgrade considerably its fleet of diesel locomotives which at present comprises 2,400 vehicles.

Millennium Capital considers the news as POSITIVE for Luhanskteplovoz as it may bring some amount of new orders for the plant though we believe it will most likely be fairly limited given the financial strain of the railroad transportation monopolist at present.