United Wagon Company

United Wagon Company

Native name	Research and Production Corporation ”United Wagon Company”, PJSC
Type	PJSC
Industry	Transport machine building
Founded	2012 (2012)
Headquarters	Moscow, Russia
Key people	Roman Savushkin (CEO)
Products	freight cars
Number of employees	10,000 (2016)
Website	uniwagon.com

Research and Production Corporation “United Wagon Company” (‘”UWC”, Russian: ПАО «Научно-производственная корпорация «Объединенная Вагонная Компания») is one of the largest rail companies in Russia and the CIS.^[1][2][3][4]

UWC manages the rail holding company, which incorporates Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant, TikhvinChemMash, Springs production factory, Vostok1520 railway transport company, as well as RAIL1520 leasing company. UWC also oversees its own R&D Center.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]}

The company is headquartered in Moscow.

History

UWC was established in May 2012 to manage the activity of Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant and RAIL1520, a leasing company.^[12]

Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant was officially launched in January 2012.^{[13][14][15][16]} TVSZ produced its 10,000th freight car in July 2014.^[2][17]

The freight car leasing company, RAIL1520, was established at the beginning of 2011.^[18] In January 2012, MRC 1520 was set up, a joint venture between RAIL1520 and the Japanese company Mitsui.^[19] At this point, RAIL1520 ranked among the top 10 largest leasing companies in Russia.^[20]

In September 2013, UWC and Wabtec Corporation (United States) signed a joint venture agreement.^[21] A few months earlier, a similar agreement was signed with Amsted Rail (USA).^[22][23] In November 2013, UWC and Tatravagonka, a.s. (Slovakia) launched a joint venture for manufacturing railway castings in the city of Prakovce.^[24][25][26]

UWC began manufacturing cars on Barber S-2-R bogies at the Novokuznetsk Car Building Plant and Roslavl Car Repairing Plant in Russia, and the Mogilev Carriage Works in Belarus in February 2014.^[27][28]

In March 2014, UWC and Timken (USA) announced that they planned to launch a joint venture for manufacturing cartridge bearings for freight cars in 2015.^[29][30] In April 2014, UWC announced the creation of its own Research and Development Centre for Transportation Technology.^[9]

UWC purchased 100% of the shares in NPC Springs (located in Izhevsk, Udmurtia) from Rusnano and Izhmash in June 2014. NPC Springs manufactures heavy-duty springs for railway transport.^[8] In the same month, UWC announced that it had established Vostok1520, a transportation company specializing in heavy load railway transportation.^[31]

In December 2014, RAIL1520’s fleet reached 20,000 freight cars.^[18]

In 2015 UWC and a global supplier of high-tech products for the rail industry Wabtec Corporation (the USA) sighed a supply agreement for export of freight castings.^[32][33]

In September 2015 UWC has made its first appearance in annual Rating of the largest Russian companies RAEX-600 and has received award in Growth Dynamics nomination.^[34]

In December 2015 UWC has launched a new transport mechanical engineering plant TikhvinChemMash for the production of new generation tank cars.^[11] On the basis of the new production UWC intends to manufacture more than 15 models and modifications of tank cars with increased load capacity, intended for transportation of all nomenclature of chemical products.^[35][36]

In the same period UWC bought a 100% share of TransMashEnergo, LLC, being a company-customer of the construction of a gas-piston thermal power plant. Own power plant will ensure power safety of manufacturing enterprises of UWC on the territory of the Tikhvin industrial site.^[37]

Business activities

UWC oversees the design, production, transport and leasing as well as service maintenance of so-called “innovative” freight cars.^[38]

UWC was the first company in Russia to start the serial production of freight cars with an increased axle load of 25 tons.^[39]

Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant is an UWC’s core production centre^[40][41] and it produces rolling stock with improved technical and economic characteristics. Over the whole of 2015, UWC has manufactured 12.4 thousand freight cars and has become the leading manufacturer of new generation freight cars in Russia and the CIS. As at the end of 2015, the size of the fleet owned and operated by UWC was 27.2 thousand freight cars, a 43% increase over the previous year.^[42]

UWC owns the intellectual rights for the technology pertaining to the world’s two largest bogie manufacturers - the Barber S-2-R (Wabtec, USA) and Motion Control (Amsted Rail, USA). UWC also the rights to produce and distribute these bogies in Russia and the CIS.^[43][44][45]

Management

United Wagon Company is one of the assets of ICT Group.^[46] The owner of ICT Group is Russian businessman Alexander Nesis.^[47][48]

UNITED WAGON PLC is the holding company of the United Wagon Company group.^[49]

Roman Savushkin is the CEO of UWC.^[50]

Finances

In December 2013, UWC Finance (part of UWC Group) placed its first round of bonds for 15 billion rubles.

In September 2014, the Company placed exchange bonds for 15 billion rubles.^[51][52]

Since April 2015 United Wagon Company floats on Moscow Exchange. UWC sold 12.22% of its shares under the public offering for a total of RUB 9.028bn ($180mn). This was the first Russian railway company IPO since 2011. The stock flotation gives UWC a market capitalisation of RUB 73.9bn ($1.5bn). The company trades under the stock ticker symbol UWGN.^[53]

References

External links

• Official website