ShAAZ to Enter the Locomotive Modernization Market

Shadrinsk Automobile Units Plant (ShAAZ) is to enter the diesel locomotive modernizations market, the Kommersant reports. ShAAZ is to get a certificate for shunting locomotive modernization by end-2016.

The plant owned by Ural Mining Company (UGMK) is already modernizing 12-13 locomotives p.a. So far these modernizations were made solely for UGMK. As the certificate is received, ShAAZ is to increase modernization capacity to 25-30 locomotives and provide modernization to third parties’ fleet.

“At the present time over 2,000 Russian companies operate shunting locomotives”, UGMK commented. “These are rail, metal, coal, machine-building and chemical companies. The fleet is mainly operated in Sverdlovskaya, Chelyabinsk, Kemerovo, Irkutsk and Moscow Oblasts”.

The Russian industrial railway fleet is estimated at 13,000 shunters. The average life of the fleet exceeds 30 years.