UWC sees production output increase 5% in Q4
PJSC Research and production corporation, United Wagon Company (UWC), the leading builder of railcars in Russia, has reported a production output 5.700 railcars in Q4, 5 percent higher than over the same period in 2017.
As the 12-month production totalled 19.7 thousand railcars, growing by 3 percent, the production targets set for 2018 have been met. In 2019, UWC intends to maintain its annual production at a level of 19,000 to 20,000 railcars.
Increasing production volumes of specialised rolling stock was the key driver for growth throughout the reporting quarter and the entire year. In Q4, the production of hopper cars leapt 90 percent year-over-year to 1.600 units, while the increase over the year was 108 percent to 5,000 units.
The production of other types of specialised railcars (flat and box cars, etc.) grew by 43 percent to 762 units in 4Q, and over the 12 months, by 98 percent to 2.6 thousand units. The tank car production went up by 50 percent to 308 units in Q4 and by 34 percent to 999 units over the year.
Meanwhile, following the market’s gradual switching to specialised rolling stock, gondola production decreased by 21 percent to 3,000 units in Q4 and by 24 percent to 11,100 units over the year. In 2019, the Company aims to continue increasing the share of specialised freight cars in its output.
19.500 railcars were dispatched to third parties over the year which represents 97 percent of the number of new railcars sold in 2018. The largest supplies were made to GTLK (gondola, hopper, box and flat cars), Rusagrotrans (hopper cars), Uralkali (hopper cars), Logistics1520 (hopper cars), Kronospan (timber flat cars) and NPO Azot (tank cars). These companies acquired a total of 15.400 railcars from the Holding. The Company also supplied its railcars to Akron (hopper cars), MKB-Leasing for subsequent far abroad exports (gondola cars), Fintrans GL (box cars), etc. A total of more than 50 customers purchased the Company’s railcars.
In 4Q, UWC’s leasing companies acquired 353 new railcars, including 337 gondola cars and 16 flat cars. Since the start of the year, the leasing subsidiary was delivered 659 railcars in total.
In the reporting quarter, the Company sold 503 standard oil tank cars from its own fleet. A total of 2.200 railcars were sold from the fleet throughout 2018. Over the year, the Company has disposed of all old generation gondola cars mounted on 23.5 tf bogies. In line with the leaseback transaction entered into 2H 2018, UWC sold 11.100 railcars from its fleet to Gazprombank Leasing.
As a result of the above changes, UWC’s own fleet and fleet under financial lease amounted to 11.900 railcars, a 10 percent decrease compared with the 2017 end.
At the year’s end, UNICON 1520 managed a fleet comprised of 1.1 tank containers (+72% compared to 2017, with their number remaining unchanged compared to the preceding quarter), 585 flat cars (+126% compared to 2017, and +5% compared to 30/09/2018) and 78 tank cars for chemicals (+105% compared to 2017, with their number remaining unchanged compared to the preceding quarter).
Shipments over the quarter totalled 99.900 tonnes, an increase of 118 percent over the figures of 4Q 2017 and 9 percent up compared to the previous quarter. The company shipped a total of 305,100 tonnes of chemicals over the year.
For more information visit www.uniwagon.com
5th February 2019
