There will be a shortage of about 18,000 gondola cars for freight transportation in Ukraine by the year 2021. Andrii Moroz, the head of the external logistics department at PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, an integrated steel plant, announced this in a statement.
"The shortage of wagons in Ukraine, according to some estimates, is up to 10,000, and it will increase in the coming years. It can be said that there will be a shortage of up to 18,000 railcars in the country as a whole by 2021," Moroz said.
According to him, this is due primarily to the suspension of construction of new wagons for the Ukrainian market as a result of the crisis that began in 2013. Wagons were built actively in the country before then, but they were mainly exported to CIS countries.
"This has created a hole in the replenishment of the new fleet. The old wagons are gradually going out of operation but the pace of their replenishment with new ones is obviously insufficient," he said.
Moroz also said that Ukrainian companies’ total requirement for wagons was between 80,000 and 120,000. In total, 52,000 wagons were built in Ukraine in 2011. Therefore, Ukraine has sufficient manufacturing capacity to cover this shortage of rolling stock. However, it should be noted that many enterprises resorted to rigid optimization of personnel and even closure of manufacturing shops after 2014.
"Therefore, they are now basically unable to maintain the previous level of output. However, it can be said that Ukraine can already build close to 10,000 wagons at its facilities," Moroz said.
According to his estimates, large manufacturing plants are currently operating at about half of their capacity, which is "already not bad and a sign of recovery."
