News

EVRAZ rails set longevity record

A batch of DT350 rails manufactured in 2013 by EVRAZ ZSMK has posted a new national record of 1.5 bln tonne-kilometres in gross tonnage moved. The rails are laid in a track at VNIIZhT’s testing facility (RZD’s R&D centre). 

Documented in late April, the new record more than doubled both the previous best result for T1 rails by service hours before track overhaul and the existing manufacturer’s warranty EVRAZ ZSMK issued to RZD for DT rails. This is a good proof of DT350 high performance capacity, meeting the current needs of RZD, especially for the heavily loaded and long routes of the Eastern Range (which comprises several regional railways in Eastern Siberia and the Far East).

The results confirm the accuracy of the innovative methods (developed jointly with VNIIZhT) EVRAZ used to assess the service life of a rail type before the statistics on its active commercial use had accumulated. DT350 rail has shown lower life cycle costs and high economic efficiency, which will enable RZD to reduce its infrastructure maintenance costs and operating costs.

“Increasing the service life of EVRAZ rails and reducing the cost of their lifecycle is the primary objective of our cooperation with RZD”, - said Ilya Shirokobrod, EVRAZ Vice-President, Sales and Logistics. “The development of high-load and high-speed traffic presents us with new challenges and sets new objectives. We are doing our best to be ahead of the game, developing rails with a service capacity of 2 bln tonne-kilometres in gross tonnage and more already now”.

EVRAZ is the biggest rail producer in Russia and North America. In 2018, EVRAZ ZSMK and EVRAZ NTMK (both - Russia) shipped 938.7 thousand tonnes of rail to customers, with EVRAZ Pueblo (US) shipping 421 thousand.

By EVRAZ.