European Bearing Corporation And Uralvagonzavod Will Cooperate

In 2008 European Bearing Corporation (EPK) will increase delivery volumes of bearings to the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) by more than one third under the strategic partnership agreement. The main purpose of the agreement is to cooperate in developing and manufacturing carriages with the increased axial load. In the nearest future EPK is going to satisfy UVZ's needs in carriage bearings almost at 100%. The Long-Term Cooperation Agreement until 2015 was signed between two companies at the exhibition "Magistral-2007" last Friday. The subject of the agreement is the long-term cooperation between the parties thereto in the field of carriage engineering oriented at the Russian Railways JSC's demands which is the regulator of the domestic railway engineering market. In particular, EPK and UVZ reached an agreement as to regular supplies of serial journal bearings of higher fidelity class and cassette-type tapered roller bearings for axle equipment of new model low-sided cars manufactured at Uralvagonzavod. Moreover, one of the most important points of the agreement is the collaboration in creating new types of railway bearings which will be installed on the next-generation trucks with the increased axial load (up to 30 tons). Such bearings will be manufactured for Russian Railways JSC under the development program aimed to increase the railway vehicles carrying capacity. Another important point of the agreement is the parties??? mutual commitments to the creation of a work group to develop suggestions as to the improvement of technical control system on the railway transport. In future, this will enable to manufacture next-generation trucks and axle equipment and therefore to make carriage engineering more attractive for Russian and foreign investors. The parties also agreed to exchange information on all innovation projects and designs as well as on problems arising during their cooperation and to involve specialists from both the companies to solve mutual problems. For this purpose an associated Science and Strategy Board will be established in the nearest future. Regarding the agreement between EPK and UVZ Nikolay Malykh, Uralvagonzavod Director General, said the following: "We have the objective to increase the overhaul life of our carriages to one million kilometers. So we need high quality bearings to reach this objective. That is why this cooperation is important for us". According to Andrey Tatanov, President of European Bearing Corporation, the agreement is a considerable breakthrough in the relationships between two companies. "For EPK it is important to cooperate with such a large and respective company like Uralvagonzavod. Under the Russian railway transport development program UVZ has serious objectives to manufacture new products and therefore involves us in order to reach them successfully. This will stimulate a new phase of the corporation's development and will improve the Russian railways performance". Uralvagonzavod is the main manufacturer of different tanks for the Russian armed forces. The enterprise manufactures currently about 100 products: military hardware, road-building engines, all-metal low-sided cars, special-purpose carriages and tank cars. The enterprise controls 35% of the Russian cistern production and over 57% of the low-sided cars production. This is now the priority for UVZ which has become the main supplier of low-sided cars for Russian Railways until 2010. Founded in 2001, European Bearing Corporation includes Moscow Bearing JSC, Moscow Aviation Bearings Plant JSC, Stepnogorsk Bearing Plant JSC (Kazakhstan), Volzhsky Bearing Plant JSC (Volgograd Region), Aviation Bearings Plant JSC (Samara), Saratov Bearing Plant JSC as well as EPK Research Center LLC, EPK Trade House LLC (service sales division), EPK Holding Company JSC. The corporation controls 42% of the Russian bearings production market. In 2005 EPK JSC and Russian Railways JSC entered into a five- year contract on the delivery of bearings for railway vehicles, which is now satisfying 80% of the Russian Railways needs in bearing products.

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