The shortage of castings is now keenly felt by both the manufacturers of new railway carriages and the carriage-repairing companies that handle the carriages of our company or of our daughter enterprises. Russian Railways Trading House was, in fact, set up to provide supplies for our daughter enterprises on the one hand and to sell what we have on offer on the other. So, this comes naturally to us in this respect. When we realized we were faced with some enormous shortage, I insisted on our people finding out where the castings could be bought. But we did not want the last year’s scenario when a license was given and as a result some faulty items were imported from China. So we sent a strong accepting team to China to control the quality of produce, and we also reached an agreement with a Chinese company TianRui. So, now we are ready to get their castings. At the same time, I asked my colleagues to look for more opportunities, and I can assure you that the castings shortage problem will be solved,’ President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin told RBC daily in a recent interview.

The deal in question involves the delivery of 25,000 railway carriages. This should be enough to put an end to Russian Railways’ castings shortage troubles. As for Uralvagonzavod and other carriage-makers, the former wanted to act as an intermediary itself: the plant buys castings on its own and delivers some of them to other businesses. However, I feel that their primary task is not being an intermediary but manufacturing,’ Yakunin added.