UKRAINIAN investment company TAS Group has acquired a 40% share of TransAnt, a joint venture created in 2020 between Voestalpine Steel Division and ÖBB Rail Cargo Group to build TransANT wagons.
The TransAnt wagon was unveiled at InnoTrans in Berlin in September 2018 as a lightweight and modular wagon designed to increase capacity and provide a flexible superstructure that can be customised to meet individual logistics requirements. The first wagons entered service with Voestalpine in autumn 2019 and are being used to transport ore.
The acquisition is designed to support the expansion and development of TAS Group subsidiary Dniprovagonmash, one of the oldest wagon-building companies in Ukraine.
TAS Group’s long-term strategy is to develop its Ukrainian business and support the Ukrainian economy by entering new international markets and upgrading production capacity, expanding its international partnerships and updating production methods.
“We have entered into a new, quite powerful, model of international cooperation in the field of wagon building which gives us new prospects for growth,” says TAS Group shareholder, Mr Serhii Tihipko. “Setting ourselves ambitious goals to integrate into the European markets, TAS Group sees the highest priority in consolidating the economic potential of its enterprises in Ukraine. Implementation of the Ukrainian-Austrian project is an extremely important driver which will give a domestic manufacturer a mighty synergism for further development, improving the efficiency of production, and boosting the export opportunities of the country.”
TAS Group says that localising production at Dniprovagonmash’s manufacturing facilities will drive production of modern freight wagons that meet international standards, as it looks to enter the wider European market. TAS Group previously launched a large-scale investment programme to modernise production at Dniprovagonmash.
“We have enough inquiries for new types of freight wagons in our stock of orders, and here at Dniprovagonmash in February we commenced the production of the main components for modular wagons,” says Dniprovagonmash general director, Mr Andrii Sanin. “The requirements of the European rail freight market are high and our products will be in compliance with all European standards and our customers’ criteria.”
