Freight transport operators, which belong to the industrial and investment group “Aurum Group”, in particular, “Trans Energy”, “Aurum Trans” and “Aurum Rail”, replenished their own freight car fleet with 94 units (including 13 grain carriers and 81 gondola cars) totaling UAH 142,776 million in 2019, while in 2018, 60 rail cars (including 8 grain carriers) totaling UAH 80,56 million were purchased, as the group’s press service reported.

“Thus, the total car fleet of these operators has amounted to 617 rail cars so far,” the press service reported to the news agency “Interfax-Ukraine”.

Rail cars are manufactured by “Diesel Plant”, a member of the group (Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Region).

As noted in the group’s press release on Thursday, over the past three years, the group’s transport operators have invested about UAH 250 million in the construction of new gondola cars and grain hoppers, replenishing their own freight car fleet by 39%.

“We annually update our freight car fleet with the most popular in the market gondola cars and grain hoppers, and we believe that this is one of the most effective investments for the Ukrainian economy because in the production of a freight car up to 97% of it of its cost is made up of domestic components manufactured by about 100 national enterprises,” the press service of the owner of “Aurum Group”, Alona Lebedieva, quotes.

In addition, she states that at present, the purchase of domestic freight cars in Ukraine is inappropriate, taking into account the surplus of rolling stock, primarily due to cars decommissioned in the Russian Federation.

According to a press release, over the past 5 years, almost half of the increase in the total freight car fleet in Ukraine was made by used freight cars, which were decommissioned and imported from the Russian Federation, and the number of cars with extended service life in a private fleet tripled.

“Aurum Group” was registered at the end of 2016. The key areas are mechanical engineering, rail freight transportation, industrial pump engineering, chemical industry, real estate investments and agricultural sector.

It exports its products to CIS countries, the Middle East, the USA and China. The group has about 1,500 specialists, the annual turnover is more than UAH 1.5 billion.

interfax.com.ua