The Interpipe pipe and wheel company (Dnipro), which is the sole producer of railway wheels in Ukraine, has launched pilot operation of its new facility for finishing railway wheels. As the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports, citing information from the company, the new facility will allow production of more sophisticated products that are in demand in Europe, America, and the Middle East. Investments in the project amounted to USD 6 million.
The facility is intended for high-precision drilling and boring of railway wheels. The company previously subcontracted these processes to European companies. They will now be performed in Ukraine at the Interpipe Nyzhniodniprovsk Tube Rolling Plant.
The new equipment will take into account all the requirements to the production of the world’s leading manufacturers of rolling stock and national railway operators, including Siemens, Bombardier, Hyundai, Alstom, Deutsche Bahn, SBB, OBB, DSB, and RENFE.
The new facility is capable of performing drilling operations on up to 60,000 railway wheels per year, depending on the design of the railway wheels.
"The launch of the facility will enable us to enter into a new segment – manufacturers of railway wheels for passenger and subway trains, as well as intricate structures for locomotive wheels. Now, we can independently perform the entire cycle of required operations – from production of steel to final precision machining of railway wheels. For Interpipe and the KLW wheel brand, this is another step in the creation of complex products with high added value for export markets," the company’s Director of Finance and Economics Denys Morozov said.
Interpipe is one of the 10 largest producers of seamless pipes in the world and the third largest manufacturer of solid-rolled railway wheels in the world. The company's products are exported to more than 80 countries. It controls five industrial assets: the Interpipe Nyzhniodniprovskyi pipe rolling plant, the Novomoskovsk pipe plant, the Interpipe Niko Tube seamless pipe plant, Dnipropetrovsk Vtormet, and the Dniprostal smelting complex (Interpipe Steel).
The ultimate owner of Interpipe Limited is Ukrainian businessman Viktor Pinchuk.
