Lemtrans, the largest freight forwarding company in Ukraine, has increased its fleet of gondola cars by purchasing 300 new ones.

The company was announced this to the CFTS portal. According to Lemtrans, all the new railcars are of Ukrainian manufacture. The company plans to use them for transporting bulk cargo throughout the Ukrainian railway network. As the company told the Interfax Ukraine news agency, the rolling stock was purchased from the Popasna railcar repair plant. The cost of the rolling stock was not disclosed.

"The renewal of the fleet is part of the company's strategy for raising the efficiency of its operations. It will certainly increase the operational stability of our business. However, it will be impossible to increase the efficiency of rail transportation solely through acquisition of railcars," said Lemtrans’ General Director Volodymyr Mezentsev. “The technical condition of the locomotives on the network is currently one of the key reasons for non-delivery of goods. Unfortunately, the current infrastructure also does not allow serious development of cargo transportation."

Mezentsev has already spoken about the need for the Ukrainian Railways public joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) to invest in modernization of the railway infrastructure. "We currently have an axle load of 23.5 tons and the economies of countries with 25-30 tons can make a significant leap forward... Unfortunately, our railway infrastructure is in the last century. Therefore, serious and significant infusions into infrastructure are needed so that these types of wagons, this configuration of wagons can be used," the general director of Lemtrans said. 

As the CFTS portal reported, Lemtrans transported 26.68 million tons of freight in the first half of 2017, including 10.27 million tons of iron ore and 10.08 million tons of coal. It transported 10.20 million tons of iron ore and 11.22 million tons of coal in the first half of 2016.

The company transported 2.88 million tons of ferrous metals in the first half of 2017 (3.69 million tons in the first half of 2016), 1.72 million tons of flux (2.04 million tons), and 1.39 million tons of coke (1.43 million tons). 

Lemtrans, a limited liability company, organizes transportation of goods with its own rolling stock, provides freight-forwarding services, provides informational support for freight transportation, and repairs rolling stock. The SCM Group owns 100% of the shares in Lemtrans.