CONTEMPORARY PROSPECTS FOR THE RAILWAY ENGINEERING INDUSTRY IN UKRAINE IN THE VIEW OF ECONOMIC CRISIS

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to explore the current state of the railway engineering industry in Ukraine, the prospects of its development, current threats and possibilities; to propose incentives for the railway industry development. Methodology. The research was based on open sources of statistical information which was compared by years in relation to events in political and economic spheres. Data was also received from producers’ web-sites. Analytical economic articles have been also used to obtaine the full scope of information regarding the railway industry in Ukraine. Results of the research showed that today Ukraine had a grea demand for the rolling stock as the current rolling stock is obsolete and 98% of it reached their lifecycle end. Currently Ukraine has six car building plans and two plans for construction of locomotives and they offer a variety of units of the rolling stock. The main customer for all those plants is the State Railway Administration of Ukraine “Ukrzaliznytsya”, that, for recent years, almost had not ordered new rolling stock. The problem is that Ukrzaliznytsya does not have own funds to pay for the rolling stock renewal, and credit funds are almost unachievable due to economic crisis and structural reorganization of the railway operator. That’s why the plants went abroad with their products, and Russia became the main customer abroad. Due to the events of 2013-2015, Russia closed its market for Ukrainian rolling stock by non-issuance of technical certificates for the rolling stock. However, in the period of political and economic instability, together with the recent cancellation of import duties to the EU countries, Ukrainian rolling stock producers have now a real chance to diversify their customers and explore new markets. Practical implications. Thus, to overcome the current difficulties, Ukrainian government has to introduce a special program to renew the rolling stock, to encourage governmental-private enterprise, and the producers should explore new markets as they have products to offer in Europe and other regions. Value/originality. The received data show that the Ukrainian railway industry has perspectives in case of finding new markets for its products. The technical level of the produced rolling stock is on the high level and can be easily improved.