The Ukrainian Railways public joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) intends to create a leasing company in partnership with Amsted Rail and The Greenbrier Companies. The leasing company will lease 10,000 wagons to Ukrainian carriers, Ukrzaliznytsia’s head Wojciech Balczun announced on his Facebook page.
"One of the key problematic issues for the market is the insufficient number of wagons. Together with our partners Amsted Rail and The Greenbrier Companies, which actively cooperate with the EBRD, Eximbank, and OPIEK, we already know what to do. We plan to jointly create a leasing company in Ukraine that will provide Ukrainian carriers with 10 000 wagons. We plan to build its fleet in conjunction with other domestic manufacturers. As part of this project, we have visited the Amstel Rail plant in Columbus, Ohio, which produces wheels for rolling stock. It will produce more than 250,000 units of this product of the highest quality," Balczun said.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia recently offered consignors the option of covering the shortage of grain cars through financial leasing: customers will buy rolling stock and supply them to Ukrzaliznytsia, which will pay for using them. According to Balczun, such a scheme could also interest grain traders because it would guarantee that grain cars for exporting their cargoes will be found and their operational risks will reduce accordingly. "If successful, this mechanism could be extended to other types of freight traffic in the future," Balczun said.
