Iran’s Wagon Pars Company, a manufacturer of rolling stock, had a strong presence in the Sixth International Exhibition of Rail Transportation and Related Industries and Equipment, also known as RailExpo 2018.
The company signed two contracts with local producers, in addition to a memorandum of understanding with China’s Puzhen, on the sidelines of the annual event held in Tehran from June 19-22.
A financer was also selected during the expo for a project that the company will jointly implement in cooperation with CRRC Dalian Co. LTD.
Some 90 companies from Germany, China, Russia, Latvia, Spain, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Austria, along with 200 domestic companies, displayed their latest products and services related to the rail sector in RailExpo 2018.
Wagon Pars Company signed an MoU to form a consortium with CRRC Nanjing Puzhen Co., a Chinese railroad rolling stock manufacturer, on June 21 for building 450 subway passenger wagons. The agreement was signed by Mohammad Reza Mokhtari, CEO of Wagon Pars, and Ying Chen, Puzhen’s representative in Iran.
“The project is worth around €450 million. Wagon Pars will be the local producer of the cars and Puzhen will finance the project and transfer the required technology to the Iranian side,” Nezam Ba’akhlaq, Wagon Pars’ deputy for commercial and international affairs, told Financial Tribune.
The wagons, he said, will be used in the subway systems of Shiraz and Ahvaz in the south and Tabriz in northwest Iran.
“On the same day, we signed a contract worth 450 billion rials ($10.7 million) with Bonyad Sharqi Railway Company, a subsidiary of Iran’s Mostazafan Foundation, for manufacturing 12 rail passenger wagons,” he added.
According to Ba’akhlaq, Sina Rail Pars Company and Arvin Tabriz Company on June 20 for the construction of 100 high-wall, open-top wagons.
“The contract is worth 340 billion rials ($8.1 million). As per the agreement, the sellers are Wagon Pars and Arvin Tabriz consortium. We will be designing, manufacturing, testing and delivering the wagons while Arvin Tabriz, which is a multi-modal international logistics company, will be financing the project and manufacturing part of the required equipment, including the bogies,” he said.
Ba’akhlaq noted that Sina Rail Pars Company has requested 1,000 high-wall, open-top wagons.
The contract pertains to 100 wagons as the first batch, which are to be delivered within 8 months after the first prepayment.
“After we have gone through with this contract, we will plan for the remaining demand. The delivery of each batch [100 wagons] will then take 4 to 5 months,” he said.
The official also said that on the first day of the exhibition, Alborzniroo Rail Fleet Company, for which Wagon Pars will be manufacturing 50 locomotives, signed another contract with Maskan Investment Bank.
The latter will be financing Alborzniroo’s share in the project and the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways will guarantee the finance.
“The project is worth €85 million. Alborzniroo will be paying 15% of the sum and the rest is to be funded from Iran’s sovereign wealth fund—the National Development Fund of Iran. The locomotives will cost around €70m and the rest of the cost has to do with maintenance, repair and training,” Ba’akhlaq said.
Wagon Pars will jointly carry out this project with CRRC Dalian, the contract for which was signed in May.
Abbas Akhoundi, the roads minister, said on Thursday some 1.05 trillion rials ($25 million) worth of Islamic bonds (sukuk) have been issued to fund the abovementioned project.
Wagon Pars, launched in 1974 in the city of Arak in the central Markazi Province, is a subsidiary of the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran and the largest manufacturer of freight, passenger and subway wagons in the Middle East.
According to Ba’akhlaq, the company has the capacity to produce 100 passenger and 1,000 cargo wagons annually.
Ba’akhlaq said Wagon Pars is a world-class company that possesses the latest technology. It manufactured 310 freight and 30 passenger wagons in the last Iranian year (March 2017-18), in addition to reconstructing 30 passenger wagons during the same period.
“We have also delivered 60 high-sided freight wagons to our customers, namely Tukarail Company and Rail Pardaz Seir Company since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21),” he concluded.
