United Wagon Company and Tatravagonka launch freight car casting production plant

United Wagon Company and Tatravagonka a.s., the largest manufacturer of freight cars in Europe, have launched a JV Railway Casted Components a.s. (RCC) to produce Barber bogie heavy castings for rolling stock designed for 1520 mm gauge. The President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin and the Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico have attended the ceremony.

Railway Casted Components a.s. facility is located in the city of Prakovce (Slovakia). The plant production capacity is 3,600 freight car sets per year. The total JV investment is expected to amount to approximately €20 million.

The RCC’s products are heavy castings for innovative Barber bogie with an axle load of up to 23.5 tf and 25 tf. The casting will be applied in the configuration of rolling stock designed for 1520 mm gauge.  

Railway Casted Components a.s. has already received the conformity certificate of Federal Budgetary Organization “Register of Certification on the Federal Railway Transport” (FBO “RC FRT”). Shipments of RCC products are expected in early 2014.
  
Roman Savushkin, CEO at United Wagon Company, states: ”We believe that Barber bogie will become the industry standard in the near future. And facts that it already features market demand, our clients receive support from the Government and Russian Railways, and other freight car manufacturers are interested in this technology, prove it. Our plant in Slovakia is an alternative competitive supplier of the Barger casting in the market.”

According to Alexey Belyaev, Chairman of the Executive Board at Tatravagonka a.s., “a partnership with UWC is the next step in the development of a large-scale cooperation with Russia's industrial leaders in the field of production of new generation freight cars designed for the 1520 mm gauge market."