Georgia: The decision was accepted by the board of directors of Georgian Railway (GR) last week, with the relevant agreement published on the state procurement website. The cancelled contract for the supply of ten 3ES6 electric freight locomotives was signed last year following a tender announced by the national operator. The supplier, Georgia Ltd., was expected to supply vehicles from Ural Locomotives, a subsidiary of Sinara Group.
The official reason for cancelling the contract is to avoid secondary sanctions, as this June saw Sinara – Transport Machines added to the US sanctions lists. The value of the deal was GEL 183.8 mln ($68.3) without VAT, with an average cost of $5.8 mln per locomotive.
The rolling stock ordered is designed to ensure freight operations on the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars, connecting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Türkiye and allows freight to be transported from Asia to Europe in a single transit. GR stressed that the route was of the utmost importance for the country’s economic development.
“The resulting situation benefits CRRC, which now has the opportunity to supply electric locomotives of the required capacity with minimal homologation costs. While the USA and the EU are actively opposing the expansion of the Chinese rolling stock, their sanctions policy against Russia is opening up the sales market for it”, says Sergey Belov, editor-in-chief of ROLLINGSTOCK Agency.
Previously, ROLLINSTOCK had estimated the negative impact of the earlier refusal of Georgia to buy metro trains from TMH. Now, the country will have to pay at least 25% more.
