The Ukrainian Railways public joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) is considering the possibility of localizing major overhauls of diesel locomotives in Ukraine by creating a joint venture with one of the world's leading manufacturers of rolling stock by the end of 2017.
Ukrzaliznytsia’s Board Chairman Wojciech Balczun announced this in a statement, emphasizing the Chinese experience, the CFTS portal reports.
"The final lesson from the ‘Chinese Lessons’ series is ‘Localization.’ The idea of a Ukrainian locomotive is not in the category of theoretical projects. There are manufacturers that are doing a lot to make this project happen. Ukrzaliznytsia is ready to provide the technical conditions for such a project... Let us ask ourselves: how ‘Ukrainian’ will this locomotive be under conditions of global cooperation? To work in the United States, 50% localization is demanded from the Chinese and 15% in Canada. Another option is a joint venture. The modern locomotive is a collection of world technologies. Full ‘Made in China’ no longer exists. There is specialization and cooperation. We should remember this when creating a Ukrainian locomotive from scratch," Balczun said.
At the same time, Ukrzaliznytsia board member Ireneusz Wasilewski said that the joint venture for major overhaul of locomotives could be created in 2017. "We will focus on large-scale and major overhaul of the existing traction fleet. In particular, active work on creation of a joint venture for modernization of diesel locomotives with one of the world's leading manufacturers is currently underway. With this approach, we will be able to significantly improve performance and reduce maintenance costs. We will essentially obtain a new locomotive as a result. We plan to launch this project before the end of the year," he said in an interview with the Port of Ukraine portal.
As the CFTS portal earlier reported, Balczun has said that the CRRC company, which is a leading Chinese manufacturer of rolling stock, is ready for to cooperate on modernization of locomotives. The head of Ukrzaliznytsia said that the Chinese company was open to all forms of cooperation.
The CFTS portal also reported that CRRC offered to provide Ukrzaliznytsia a Chinese-made electric locomotive for testing after a delegation from Ukrzaliznytsia visited China.