AFTER a challenging year in 2009, Russian Railways' (RZD) capital investment will return to pre-recession levels in 2010-11 as the company seeks to continue renewal of its assets. During a meeting in Sochi last week, president Mr Vladimir Yakunin said RZD will have an investment of fund of Roubles 555 billion ($US 18.5 billion), around 78% of which come from the railway's own resources. This is more than the company invested in 2008, when traffic was still at record levels.
AFTER a challenging year in 2009, Russian Railways' (RZD) capital investment will return to pre-recession levels in 2010-11 as the company seeks to continue renewal of its assets. During a meeting in Sochi last week, president Mr Vladimir Yakunin said RZD will have an investment of fund of Roubles 555 billion ($US 18.5 billion), around 78% of which come from the railway's own resources. This is more than the company invested in 2008, when traffic was still at record levels.
During 2010-11, RZD will renew 20,000km of track (3200km of which will
be totally rebuilt), and around 800km of electrification equipment.
Roubles 72 billion has been allocated for the acquisition of new
trains.
RZD says that despite the increased investment activity this year,
sources of finance remain severely restricted. Profits are entirely
dependent on the tariff indexing level and on the company's ability to
reduce costs.
Yakunin warned that under even the most optimistic forecasts
railfreight will not recover to pre-crisis levels until at least 2013,
and is unlikely to reach 2008 levels until 2015.
