Switzerland's KLW Wheelco company resumes Ukraine-made wheel supplies to Indian Railways after two years
KLW Wheelco has supplied 2,000 Ukrainian-make forged wheels to the Indian Railways in the past few weeks, said a senior Indian government official. This is the first such delivery from the war-torn nation since the Russia-Ukraine conflict started in early 2022.
The development comes close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Kyiv where he met with his counterpart, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. «Another 3,500 forged wheels are on their way from Ukraine. Orders for 10,000 forged wheels worth ₹72 crore have been placed with the Swiss company earlier this year,» the official told ET.
These wheels are being manufactured in Dnipro (Ukraine) by Interpipe Group, a global producer of steel pipes and railway wheels. The wheels are for Bogie Open Wagon with Air Brakes (BOXN wagons), which are largely used for carrying goods such as coal, and are being loaded from an Ukrainian port in the Black Sea.
«While the size of the order is small, this move opens up the opportunity for India to once again diversify its import sources, while domestic manufacturing of wheels picks up,» a second official said.
The Indian Railways last awarded a wheel procurement order to KLW Wheelco in March 2021 for 36,000 units worth ₹116 crore. But due to the Ukraine war, the railways had to rely on China for wheel supply.
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