Poland: The production moved from Stadler’s site in Fanipol to Siedlce in Poland due to the sanctions pressure on Belarus and its support of Russia in the conflict in Ukraine.
“We are starting to transfer production to eastern markets to Poland. <…> We regret that our factory in Minsk cannot work for customers, but in this political situation it is impossible”, said the Executive Vice President for Central Europe of Stadler Philipp Brunner speaking with the Rynok Kolejowy media.
The Stadler site in Siedlce was opened in 2007. During this time, it has produced more than 600 vehicles (multiple units and trams) for various European markets.
The producer plans to start assembling rolling stock for Azerbaijan in Siedlce from the second half of 2023. In 2019 the ADY national rail operator of Azerbaijan signed a €115 mln contract with Stadler for the delivery of 10 FLIRT trains of electric and diesel modifications. Earlier, Stadler had received other small orders from ADY for locomotive-hauled passenger coaches with gauge-changing bogies and the KISS double-deck electric trains.
Stadler announced plans to move production from Belarus in March. It was mentioned then that the plant encountered problems with the import of electronic and electrical components, and the president and owner of Stadler Peter Spuhler expressed his desire to conserve the site and to increase production capacity in Belarus after sanctions relief. However, at the end of October, he made a critical statement about Belarussian and Russian state authorities in an interview with the Blick media.
Stadler noticed that the Fanipol plant’s share makes less than 2% of its backlog but also declared CIS countries as an “opportunistic” market for Stadler’s business during the Capital Markets Day that the producer held in September.
