Astra Vagoane Calatori SA, specialised in production and repairs of railway cars estimates to attain some 25 million euros in turnover this year, while profit should amount to more than 10% of turnover. The company was chosen by Siemens as partner for producing and assembling 63 out of the 120 trains to be supplied by the German company to CFR Calatori until 2007, under a 321 million-euro contract. This train-purchasing contract is the largest ever for the Romanian railway industry after 1989, according to CFR Calatori estimates. "The contract will not make much of an impact on the company's turnover this year, as the significant effects are likely to show as of the third or fourth contractual year, that is by 2005. The first trains will be assembled in Arad this fall," said Valeriu Blidar, representative of the Romanian Tristar and Xedox companies that jointly hold about 80% in Astra Vagoane Calatori SA. What will Astra stand to gain from this deal? "First of all, this is about an image gain and second, we hope we will gradually extend our co-operation with the Germans to various fields," Blidar says. He declined providing any details as to how much of the 321 million euro in the contract Astra would get, for "confidentiality reasons". The first trains assembled in Arad will reach the railroads in Romania by April 2004, sources close to the deal say. ZF
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