PRESS: Russian farmers see lack of grain carriers soon

MOSCOW, Mar 30 (PRIME) -- Russian farmers may face a deficit of grain carriers in a year, as 25% of the fleet is expected to be written off in 2019–2020, Kommersant business daily reported on Friday.

According to a protocol of the meeting at the Federal Agency for Railway Transport’s deputy head Dmitry Shpadi, 722 grain carriers out of 40,800 should be decommissioned in 2018 and 10,600 in 2019–2020.

According to statistics data provided at a meeting at Russian Railways’ CEO Oleg Belozyorov, 4,100 grain carriers are expected to be decommissioned in 2019 and 6,600 in 2020. Under Russian Railways’ estimates, a deficit of grain carriers stood at 300 by February of this year and is expected to grow to 1,200 units in 2019 and 6,200 in 2020.

A spokesperson for United Wagon Company (UWC) said that capacities of all plants exceed 14,000 units. A government source said that grain carrier production capacities in Russia amount to 10,250 units, while real purchases for 2018 are at 5,500. The Agriculture Ministry believes the decommissioning of grain carries will not negatively affect grain transportation, as plants’ capacities of 5,000 wagons a year enable to keep the current level of fleet.

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