Interpipe and BELAZ entered into a strategic agreement on the supply of railway wheels

The Ukrainian industrial company INTERPIPE and the Belarusian manufacturer of transport equipment BELAZ-HOLDING entered into a strategic partnership agreement, which provides for the expansion of cooperation between companies in the supply of railway wheels in 2019-2020.

Under the agreement, the companies plan to increase the supply of railroad wheels from Ukraine to Belarus to 6,000 units in 2019 and 20,000 units in 2020.

The main consumer of INTERPIPE railway products will be the Mogilev Carriage Works, which is part of the BELAZ-HOLDING structure.

Interpipe will for the first time carry out direct deliveries of railway wheels to BELAZ-HOLDING.

Interpipe has been working on the Belarusian market for a long time, supplying wheels to the Minsk and Gomel car repair plants, which are branches of the Belarusian Chygunka (BC).

Fadi Hraybe, General Director of Interpipe:

- In the summer, the Eurasian Economic Commission decided to suspend the anti-dumping duty in the amount of 34.22% on the supply of railway wheels from Ukraine. This became a positive signal for the CIS railway industry and allowed us to conclude a long-term contract with one of the major consumers of the Belarusian market.

Interpipe is a long-standing partner of BELAZ in terms of deliveries of pipes for heavy engineering, therefore, the expansion of the partnership in the segment of railway wheels will strengthen cooperation between our companies. At the same time, the prospect of this cooperation will largely depend on the outcome of the new EEC investigation into the import of railway wheels from Ukraine.

Petr Parkhomchik, General Director of BELAZ-HOLDING:

- The BELAZ-HOLDING holding includes the Mogilev Carriage Works, which is the only manufacturer of freight rail cars in the Republic of Belarus.

In 2018, a line for the production of a wheelset was also launched at the branch of OJSC "BELAZ" in Mogilev. However, we faced an acute shortage of solid-rolled wheels, which was provoked by an increase in production in the railway industry and an increased anti-dumping duty on wheels produced in Ukraine in April 2018.

After the decision to suspend the anti-dumping duty, it became possible to purchase railway wheels from Interpipe at a competitive price, which, in turn, will significantly increase the turnover between our companies and completely eliminate the problem with providing the Mogilev Carriage Works with components.