JSC Russian Railways from January 2014 buying foreign rails, said Vedomosti the representative of the railroad monopoly. According to the publication, in late 2013, Trading house Russian Railways (RZD structure, procurement of rails) have studied the possibility to buy in 2014 Japanese Nippon Steel rails, but decided to abandon them. Instead of imported Russian Railways to purchase rails from Russian companies Evraz and Mechel.
A source close to Evraz, explained that Russian Railways increased its purchase of Japanese rails at that time, while undergoing modernization and reconstruction of rail and structural steel mill at the West Siberian metallurgical plant (owned by Evraz). Since 2013 the company started to produce this plant of 100-meter rails (which were imported). The representative of Evraz declined to comment.
In 2013 RZD has purchased 950 thousand tons of rails, of which 20% were foreign-made, put the rest of Evraz. This year the railway monopoly plans to reduce purchases by 12% to 830 million tonnes, warned by the first Vice-President of Russian Railways Vadim Morozov. According to the representative of the Russian Railways in the second half of the year the monopoly will begin procurement of rails from Mechel 100-130 thousand tons, the same numbers called and the top Manager of the Russian Railways. Other needs will still cover the supply of Evraz, said the representative of the monopoly.
The General Director of Agency Infoline-Analitika Mikhail Burmistrov estimated that by going on a 100-meter rails Russian production, the Railways will save on purchases of up to 30% or $100 million a year. 100-meter-long rails are more expensive than 25-meter, but due to the smaller number of joints they need replacing less often,