Russian Railways, Siemens and Sinara Group sign cooperation agreement on railway and power engineering

A strategic cooperation agreement on manufacturing locomotives has been signed at the Hannover Messe, the world’s largest industrial fair.

Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, Dmitry Pumpyansky, President of the Sinara Group, and Peter Löscher, President and Chief Executive Officer of Siemens, signed the agreement in the presence of Russia’s Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov on 8 April 2013.

The partners agreed to expand the range of main line freight locomotives, namely to produce single-section AC and DC electric trains with asynchronous motor drives at Ural Locomotives LLC, a joint venture of Siemens and the Sinara Group.

“We are very pleased that we have such partners. What we are doing is not a repetition of the past. We are setting up production which has never existed in Russia,” said Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways.

It is envisaged that 350 of these locomotives will be supplied to Russia’s railways by 2020. Specific delivery details will be defined in the contract which the parties intend to sign in 2014. The parties also agreed on the need for the full maintenance and repair of the locomotives.

As Russia’s Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov noted following the signing, “the agreement not only solves the tasks involved in technologically renovating industrial production in the country, but also, in particular, improving the performance of rolling stock, and hence reducing the cost to manufacturing companies of transporting their products.”

In order to reach 80% localisation of production of the Desiro RUS series of electric trains by the end of 2017 at Ural Locomotives, the three companies agreed on a list of basic units and components for the train which should be localised in the Russian Federation.