Uralkali has received 18 hopper wagons of the new generation, manufactured by the Bryansk Engineering Plant. The new wagons loaded with potassium chloride have already left for the Baltic Bulker Terminal and in a few days Uralkali will receive another batch of hoppers from the Bryansk plant.

Uralkali is the first Russian enterprise to use wagons of such design. The hopper has numerous advantages over the usual mineral wagon. Its design ensures efficient unloading of the wagon: firstly, fertilizers do not stick to the internal walls of the wagon; secondly, the wagon is equipped with a manually operated unloading mechanism that does not require the use of the pneumatic system, so that the unloading time is reduced from 2 - 3 minutes to 10 - 15 seconds. The service life of the hopper is 28 years, twice as long as that of a conventional wagon, because the hopper is manufactured from corrosion-resistant steel and is coated with a special varnish. But the main advantage of the hopper is its load-carrying capacity which is as high as 70 tons. One railway train consisting of new wagons carries an extra 162 tons of fertilizers compared to a train consisting of conventional mineral wagons

"Speaking about the world standards of quality we mean not only the finished products but also the equipment, technology, organization of production processes," says Maxim Bakshinsky, General Director of Uralkali. "An important link in this chain is carriage management. Several years ago we established cooperation with the Bryansk Engineering Plant and as a result a wagon of a new type appeared, which is in many respects superior to mineral wagons. We are ready to buy from the Bryansk Plant up to 650 wagons a year and within several years we will have specialized rolling stock, which will make it possible to increase the carriage volumes without affecting the quality of the products."

The Uralkali and the Bryansk Engineering Plant have concluded a general agreement which sets forth the terms and conditions for the delivery of hoppers. Under this agreement over 2 thousand hoppers will be delivered to the company by the end of 2007 and Uralkali has the right to control the rise of prices for the wagons. Moreover, the manufacturer is ready to upgrade the hopper in accordance with Uralkali's suggestions.

Thus, given the shortage of rolling stock in the country, the company will be able to receive wagons at acceptable prices and radically renew and increase its own rolling stock within three and a half years. Today Uralkali's rolling stock is one of the largest among companies-operators. It consists of more than 3.5 thousand wagons, including 2.4 thousand mineral wagons. In 2003, the company carried over 7 million tons of cargoes using its own rolling stock.