OREANDA-NEWS. The board of directors at RealTransAuto announced its results for the first months of the company’s existence.

RealTransAuto is a subsidiary of Russian Railways and Trans-Groups AS, a leader in logistics and the delivery of automobiles by rail. It began commercial operations on March 1, 2007 and specialises in optimising delivery methods. It is vigorously expanding its fleet of modern rail cars and building a network of specialized automobile terminals.

It currently operates 1,817 autorack rail cars for transporting automobiles.

The board of directors approved a plan to purchase 300 additional new rail cars before the end of the year for 1.2 billion roubles (USD 47.10 million). By 2010, the RealTransAuto fleet will comprise of over 5,000 specialized autorack cars.

Fahrzeugtechnik Dessau AG in Germany has developed a unique covered autorack car with a length of about 46 meters to transport automobiles especially for this particular project. The first autorack cars are due to being tests at the end December 2007.

The next stage in RealTransAuto’s development will be transporting new imported automobiles from Japan to Moscow. The cars will go by rail via the seaport in the Bay of Troitsa in Primorskiy Kray on Russia’s Pacific coast along the Trans-Siberian Main Line. This represents a much fast alternative than the existing route by sea from Japan to Finland and then road to Moscow, with a guaranteed delivery in 10 days and high throughput capacity.

The creation of a unique network of terminals will be financed from RealTransAuto’s charter capital paid in by Trans-Group AS. In September, a central terminal at Mikhnevo in Moscow region will be commissioned. Investment in the terminal is about 800 million roubles (USD 31.25 million). On completion in 2008, the terminal will be able to handle over 230,000 cars per annum. A new control system provides complete monitoring of all processes by radio-frequency markers, a system unique in Russia

The board of directors also approved RealTransAuto’s business-plan and dividend and borrowing policies.