All three international companies producing bearings for innovative freight cars with increased axle load have left the Russian market.

Innovative cars production

Production at the remaining plants of parts of the required quality without the participation of foreign partners is impossible, informs Railway Supply magazine.

Amsted Rail, SKF and Timken announced their exit from the market of the aggressor country.

These companies had enterprises on the territory of the Russian Federation and supplied bearings for the construction and repair of innovative cars.

Thus, the production of rolling stock may be completely stopped in Russia. According to the CFTS, this may happen in May this year.

It should be noted that, according to the Russian Institute for Natural Monopoly Problems, the share of innovative cars in the total production of cars in the Russian Federation for the first 9 months of 2021 reached 42.7%, in the gondola segment 94.7%, and the total share of innovative cars on the network of Russian Railways exceeded 15% of the park.

Technical experts are skeptical about the possibility of further production of bearings with extended overhaul run by Russian enterprises, from which foreign companies emerged.

“In theory, on paper, according to “import substitution”, it seems to be so, but there is one thing – in Russia there is simply no required steel grade for the main components. Therefore, they will not be able to produce a quality product. Yes, some rubbish in fact under the guise of something new, ”says one of the experts.

In his opinion, the production of a completely Russian innovative car can only be considered as a PR campaign designed for Russians.

A similar situation arose with the creation of a new “Russian” freight locomotive.

As we previously reported, the production of RF’s own modern electric locomotive suitable for operation is unrealistic due to the fact that IGBT transistors are not produced on the territory of the aggressor country.

European manufacturers have banned the supply of these key components for traction converters.

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