Translated material
Iron Siemens
The German concern has created a joint venture with the main supplier of Russian Railways
The German concern Siemens, after a failed attempt to create a joint venture with a monopolist in the power engineering industry - the Power Machines company - chose Transmashholding (TMH), which controls 80% of the country's railway equipment market, as a partner in the joint venture. As you know, TMH owns five machine-building plants that produce electric locomotives, diesel locomotives, passenger and freight cars, i.e. is a key supplier for Russian Railways.Thus, the integration of the German concern into Russian mechanical engineering continued.
According to TMH, the joint venture was created on April 19 and was named "Transconverter", it will specialize in the development and production of prototypes and serial batches of high-voltage static converters for passenger cars, electric locomotives and electric trains. Having transferred converter production technologies to the joint venture, Siemens received a 35% stake in Transconverter, the remaining shares were assigned to TMH. The Russian-German joint venture will release the first two converters for the 2ES4 DC mainline electric locomotive being developed by the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant in December.
Sources close to TMH told Vremya Novostey yesterday that the creation of Transconverter is a preparatory stage for the Russian company’s cooperation with Russian Railways on a project to create high-speed communication (it was signed with Siemens about a month ago). By 2007, the first prototype of a train capable of reaching speeds of up to 250 km/h should appear in Russia, and serial production of such trains should begin in 2009. For this purpose, it is planned to create a joint venture with the participation of Siemens, investment banks and Russian industrial enterprises. The railway monopoly has already guaranteed the purchase of at least 60 trains from the joint venture for $1.9 billion. TMH plants are among the main contenders for the production of high-speed trains. Their most likely competitor in the market is the Dnepropetrovsk group Yuzhmash. Consequently, the creation of a joint venture with Siemens significantly increases TMH’s chances of full participation in the distribution of the Russian Railways contract.
According to the source, TMH is negotiating with Siemens on the creation of similar joint ventures in the production of mechanical parts of rolling stock; in particular, the possibility of organizing the production of third-generation motor bogies in Russia is being considered (currently only the first is produced).
“Although the entry of Siemens into the Russian market is undesirable for us,” explains a source in TMH, “a more dangerous competitor for us now are Chinese companies, because of which the holding recently lost large contracts in Uzbekistan (an order for 30 electric trains) and in Ukraine Cooperation with Siemens will allow us to rise to the required level to compete in foreign markets - not only in the CIS, but also in Asia, in particular in India and Iran."
The founder of Transmashholding is Kuzbassrazrezugol, 63% of which belongs to the president of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company Iskander Makhmudov. TMH owns controlling stakes in the Bryansk Machine-Building Plant and Bezhitsa Steel, the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant, the Transport Equipment Plant, 25% of the shares of the Tver Carriage-Building Plant and 75% of the shares of Yudzhi-Trans, which controls the Demikhovsky Machine-Building Plant and the Oktyabrsky Electric Car Repair Plant.