OREANDA-NEWS. May 23, 2012. The Second Cargo Company, a subsidiary of Russian Railways, was going to buy 15,500 railcars in 2012, Vitaly Evdokimenko, CEO of the Second Cargo Company, told journalists.

 “The average age of our rolling stock is rather old, so our main task is to renew our railcar fleet by any ways possible – to buy new rolling stock, to purchase second-hand rolling stock, the age of which is less than that of ours (Second Cargo Company’s park),” explained the senior manager.

In the words of Mr Evdokimenko, the railway operator intends to buy gondola cars, tank wagons, boxcars, and flat wagons this year. The rolling stock will be supplied by Uralvagonzavod, Promtractor-Wagon (a subsidiary of Machinery & Industrial Group N.V.), and Altaivagon. The purchase volume will depend on the prices for rolling stock, the Head of the Second Cargo Company said.

In April, the company’s PR Department told Interfax that in 2011 the company purchased twice less gondola cars than it had planned because of high prices for the rolling stock.

In 2012 the Second Cargo Company is going to purchase rolling stock for the sum of approximately RUB 35 billion (USD 1.126 billion; the total capex is RUB 50 billion or USD 1.609 billion). The rest funds will be invested to upgrade existing wagons. In 2012-2014, the railway operator plans to buy approximately 40,000 new railcars (of that, 23,500 units are gondola cars) and to renew another 89,000 units (for the sum of over RUB 130 billion (USD 4.184 billion), the VAT excluded).