Stadler Not Planning To Completely Close Factory In Belarus

Stadler, a Swiss manufacturer of railway rolling stock, has not shut down its operations in Belarus completely, but it has partially transferred orders from the Stadler Minsk plant to companies in the European Union and Switzerland.

The company said this in a statement in response to an information request from the CFTS portal.

"As a result of the sanctions imposed to date, Stadler has initiated measures to secure the affected orders and transfer them from Belarus to our plants in the European Union and Switzerland. Stadler consistently implements the sanctions of supranational organizations such as the UN, the EU or the OECD," the Swiss company said in the statement.

According to the statement, the implemented measures have already led to a decrease in production capacity. Out of the 1,500 employees in Belarus, some positions have already been cut in recent months. The staff reductions are expected to continue. So far, the reduction in capacity has been implemented almost exclusively through reallocation to other Stadler sites and to local companies.

"Stadler does not intend to close the plant completely and will ramp up it once the sanctions have been lifted," the company said in the statement.

In addition, the CFTS portal asked Stadler whether the company really plans to take part in the repair of a DP3-001 diesel train manufactured by Pesa Bydgoszcz, which the Polish company has refused to repair.

In response, the press service of the Swiss manufacturer said, "There are certain negotiations between Stadler Minsk and Belarusian Railway on that topic, but nothing yet settled".

As reported earlier, Stadler Rail moved the production of Flirt trains for Azerbaijan Railways from its plant in Fanipol (Belarus) to Siedlce (Poland) in November.

After the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Railways joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) called on Stadler to cease operations in Russia and Belarus. Later, the Swiss company’s head Peter Spuhler said that Stadler supported the sanctions and that it was partially moving production out of Belarus.