OREANDA-NEWS. Oleg Bukin, CEO of Joint Stock Company Freight One (Freight One), and Mikhail Skorokhod, President of EUROCEMENT group, signed a five-year service contract for railway transportation of the whole volume of finished goods of Russia's largest manufacturer of construction materials.

In the scope of the service contract the two companies plan to expand cooperation, addressing operational, technological, informational, and economic issues. Additionally, Freight One is to assume the holding's railcar fleet management, thus allowing EUROCEMENT group to increase fleet efficiency by taking advantage of Freight One's potential as the largest operator on the railway network of Russia and the CIS.

"Making the service contract with the Russia's largest manufacturer of construction materials is in line with Freight One's strategy of building long-term relationships with key customers and increasing our transportation share for large industrial holdings. We believe that cooperation with Freight One will help EUROCEMENT group optimize transport costs, spare it the inconvenience of non-core functions, and enhance competitiveness of Russian products in the domestic and international markets," said Oleg Bukin, CEO of Freight One, commenting on the deal.

"We know Freight One as a professional and reliable partner, the largest railway freight operator with undoubted competencies in this field. The company's fleet totals about 200 thousand units of various of rolling stock types, securing timely dispatch of cement from the holding's enterprises, and stable and timely delivery of products to the consumers. Long-term cooperation with Freight One will help EUROCEMENT group reduce transportation and logistics costs, set up smooth transport servicing of our plants, and minimize the risks of delayed export of our products. This agreement allows EUROCEMENT group to focus on our basic core function, namely, increasing cement production efficiency, by shifting the burden of service functions responsibility to our partner. In turn, EUROCEMENT group is committed to providing a stable guaranteed volume of goods for transportation," said Mikhail Skorokhod, President of EUROCEMENT group.

Earlier in 2012-14, Freight One signed long-term service contracts with major industrial companies of the metallurgical sector, including NLMK Group, Severstal, and UC Rusal.