Vladimir Yakunin, president at Russian Railways
Photo: Dmitry Lekay
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Russian Railways to Change Rail-Track
In the Friday conference call, new president of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin preferred to play safe, never hesitating to lash out at his subordinates because of the low condition of rail-track in Russia. In future, Yakunin will have to remain equally ardent, in time when held accountable for attaining objectives set at the start of his leadership.
Only a month ago, when former head of Russian Railways Gennady Fadeev was giving up his office to Yakunin, the company’s standing appeared at least stable. “You are taking Russian Railways on the very good fly. All you need is to correctly dispose of the wealth,” Fadeev said then. In a fortnight, however, it became clear the company’s budget had holes of many billion rubles.
Yakunin specified Friday the company’s efficiency is minimal, while the tear and wear is nearly critical. Carriage revenues were short of 10.5 billion rubles in the first half-year. Auxiliary revenues target was met at 95.3 percent (short of more than 1.2 billion rubles). In the third quarter, the company is expected to carry at least 324.1 million tons of cargo, reach the passenger turnover of 49.5 billion passenger-kilometers, derive at least 168 billion rubles in revenues and limit the costs to 161.6 billion rubles.
“The company needs huge investment resources, and its market standing is deteriorating,” Yakunin noted. According to Yakunin, there is a risk that Russian Railways will become a low-efficient company, rendering capital-intensive infrastructural services with cargo carriage of low profit.
In future, Yakunin intends to shift to long-term contracts with freighters, where the mutual liabilities would be stipulated, enter the market of integrated services. “In many cases, it is necessary to take part in creating logistics centers, developing stevedore and automobile companies,” the new president pointed out. “Having started mastering customs and brokerage operations, we have managed to get away more than 100 million rubles from intermediaries.”
After the conference call, its participants told Kommersant they have heard a lot in the new context. “Basically, we are the process men, but now we will have to obtain further insight in the capital management, investment economy and budgeting. The company will be managed based on the fundamentally different approach,” they said.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 18, 2005
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