India’s Chittaranjan Locomotive Works produced 200 locomotives in the first 159 working days of its current financial year, despite of Covid-19 restrictions. The first 150 locomotives were produced in 129 working days, and the next 50 locos in 30 working days.
Megger has acquired Stevo Electric’s Balto range of DC high-speed electrical circuit breakers for rail, metro and industrial applications. Megger said this would complement its railway test, measurement and diagnostic equipment portfolio.
Russian Railways has joined the German-Russian Initiative for Digitalisation of the Economy, which also includes Siemens, SAP, Bosch, Volkswagen, Rostelecom, Skolkovo Foundation, Tsifra Group, TMK, Sinara Group, Rostec and Kaspersky Labs. ’Accession of Russian Railways to GRID is a logical step towards developing the company’s interaction with its German partners, with whom we are already working together in the logistics sector, in the creation of modern rolling stock and personnel training. We are joining GRID, first and foremost, to get the opportunity to exchange experience in the field of digital transformation’, said RZD’s Director of Information Technologies Evgeny Charkin.
On November 20, Eurofima raised SKr1·5bn in an eight-year Green Bond which pays a coupon of 0·490%. The rolling stock financing organisation said its first green bond in the Swedish krona market and its and its largest Swedish krone-denominated transaction to date attracted interest from Skandia and Swedbank Robur, some of the main sustainable investors. Proceeds will be exclusively used to finance electric passenger locomotives, EMUs and coaches.
KfW IPEX-Bank is providing Austrian Federal Railways with €80m of financing for the acquisition of EMUs. Further financing is being provided by the European Investment Bank.
The Australasian Railway Association has released the Value of Rail 2020 research report commissioned from Deloitte Access Economics. This highlights the contribution to the Australian economy made by the 900+ companies in the rail sector, with A$30bn generated from the industry in 2019 and rolling stock manufacturing and repair generating A$2·4bn of revenue.
On November 10 Eurofima issued a US$700m three-year RegS benchmark, the first public US dollar SSA benchmark after the US presidential elections and its first fixed rate US dollar benchmark since 2015. More than 50 investors participated in the offering with central banks and official Institutions receiving 71% of the final allocations, followed by asset managers (15%) and banks (14%). Regional distribution was split relatively evenly amongst Asia (31%), Europe (28%) and the Americas (27%), while Middle East & Africa accounted for 14%.
Keiron Thorogood, Rail Account Manager for Morris Lubricants, died on November 21.