Russian Railways (RZD) is battling an excess amount of wagons on the rail network. There are now 400,000 too many of them. The operator is taking measures that may bring wagon manufacturers in real trouble: Wagon production could collapse by two thirds.
Serious risks are appearing for the business of Russian wagon manufacturers. That is according to Russian media, which cite Evgeniy Semyonov, the head of a Russian wagon producer association.
“Unforeseen restrictions” are the underlying factors for those serious risks. They include RZD’s measures against the excess wagons, limited infrastructure throughput capacity, a low volume of wagon write-offs, as well as the high 21 per cent interest rate. The latter has a negative impact on the lending and leasing of rolling stock.
The result, according to Semyonov, is a possible collapse of wagon production down to 25,000 annually. Wagon manufacturers could subsequently be forced to close their businesses. In 2024, Russian companies produced a total of 73,5 thousand wagons. If the situation develops slightly more favourably than what is now expected, up to 60,000 wagons could be built in Russia in 2025.
No registration for wagons
That seems rather unlikely with how things are going now. On top of the abovementioned factors, Semyonov says that there is no more capacity left for the registration of new wagons. “Under the old conditions, the owner had to register it to himself within two to three months, and accordingly deregister it from the plant’s registration station. Today, this period has been reduced to 45 days. But the problem is not the registration period. We have nowhere to register it, the owner of the public infrastructure [RZD] refuses to register these cars.”
“Owners will not be able to re-register their wagons already by April – May. Accordingly, the wagon will not be in demand. Not because there will be nothing to carry in it, but simply because it will not be registered. “And an unregistered wagon has no right to operate on non-public tracks,” Semyonov concluded.
Traffic volumes have also dropped.