Russian Railways rejects foreign rails in favour of Mechel’s products

The plant of Mechel’s Chelyabinsk group has started the certification of 100-meter rails for general purposes. The first batch was supplied to the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Railway Transport.
The universal rail-and-structural steel mill of the Chelyabinsk metallurgical plant (ChMK) has sent the first batch of rails to the Moscow satellite town of Sherbinka for laboratory and field tests on the experimental ring of the All-Russian Research Institute of Railway Transport.

"When our rails will be certified, Russian Railways will be provided with rail products of not just high quality, but namely adapted for the use in conditions of the Russian climate, and can significantly reduce their dependence on imports," - said general director of Mechel, Oleg Korzhov.

Russian Railways have not bought foreign rails since January of this year. At the end of 2013, Trading House of Russian Railways negotiated on the purchase of rails in the current year with the Japanese Nippon Steel. But it decided to abandon them.

In general, last year, Russia Railways bought 950 000 tons of rails, 20% of which were foreign-made, the others were supplied by Evraz. This year, the railway monopoly plans to reduce the purchases by 12%. In the second half of the year, the monopoly will begin to buy rails from Mechel - 100 000-130 000 tons. The remaining needs will be covered by the Evraz’s supplies again.

Previously, Russian Railways bought foreign rails with length of 100 meters due to improved strength characteristics and thermal stability. Now Russia also manufactures such products. In particular, Mechel spent $750 million on the modernization of its production and launch of the universal rail-and-structural steel mill. The mill produces rails that