Experts at the Railway Products Division of the Interpipe industrial group added 24 standard sizes of wheels and axles to the portfolio of the Ukrainian industrial group in 2023.
Oleksandr Roslik, the technical director of the railway products division of the Interpipe industrial group, announced this in an interview with the CFTS portal.
"As far as new products for export are concerned, Interpipe's R&D experts mastered 24 new wheel and axle sizes in 2023," he said.
According to him, they are also working on mastering the production of wheelsets with disc brakes for foreign customers.
"The company is a traditional supplier of its railway products to the European Union. In Europe, two out of three freight cars have Interpipe wheels. Over two decades, we have mastered the production of over 250 new sizes of wheels, axles, and wheelsets, including for high-speed passenger trains," Roslik said.
At the same time, according to Roslik, the company had to significantly change its logistics during the war in order to be able to continue steady operations in export markets.
"Some routes have become 1.5 times longer. In general, the volume of export orders naturally decreased after the invasion. However, new supply routes have been established thanks to the clear actions of Interpipe's logisticians and our partners. A wide range of technical and commercial issues were agreed upon, interaction with new logistics terminals was established, new connections and relationships were built, and IT systems were rebuilt for the new tasks and requirements. Thanks to this, Interpipe had stable and generally manageable logistics in 2023," Roslik said.
As reported in the spring of 2023, Interpipe has shipped a batch of over 2,600 railway wheels to the Office National des Chemins de Fer (ONCF), the Moroccan railway operator.
The company increased its production of railway products by 14.1% to 73,000 tons in the first nine months of 2023, compared with the corresponding period of 2022.
