UWC and commercial company VIK sign a contract for timber flat cars

PJSC «Research and production corporation «United Wagon Company» (RPC UWC, the Group or the Company) (MOEX: UWGN), Russia’s largest manufacturer of freight cars¹, and VIK, a wholesale raw wood and timber merchant, signed a contract for the supply of 40 flat cars for transporting timber materials. The shipment of the railcars is planned for the second quarter of this year.

The technical and economic parameters and design features of the flat car, Model 13-6852-02, for timber allow the owner to reduce the required fleet size, speed up car turnaround time, and also significantly save on the costs of cargo transportation and rolling stock maintenance. The 13-6852-02 car is the most demanded model of timber flat cars in United Wagon Company's product line.

The 40-foot long flat car features increased load capacity (74 tonnes) and increased loading volume (122 m³), which allows up to an additional 10 cubic metres of cargo to be carried in each railcar. Openings in the end wall simplify cargo inspection at customs control posts. The design of the side racks minimizes unused space, while allowing more freight to be loaded into the railcar. The railcar floor keeps cargo residues from falling onto the track, and has drain holes to prevent water accumulation.

The flat car is equipped with an innovative bogie, Model 18-9855, which significantly reduces the cost of maintaining the railcar in good working order. The car has a maintenance interval of up to 1 million km or 8 years. The service life of the flat car is 40 years.

Oleg Batalov, CEO at VIK, LLC: "We have been offering high quality wood materials for more than 20 years. We attach a great deal of importance to delivery conditions and reliability of the railcars, as these factors are relevant to us performing our obligations to customers. The choice of UWC flat cars is an obvious option for us, seeing that we have had no complaints throughout years’ experience of operating the Tikhvin flat cars, and these cars have proven efficient."

United Wagon Company and VIK have been developing their partnership since 2017. Together with the delivery under the new contract, the merchant’s fleet will include a total of 80 railcars built in Tikhvin.

¹As reported by INFOLine-Analytics: https://infoline.spb.ru/news/index.php?news=205975