Kiruna Wagon has completed initial static testing of a side dump wagon and unloading station being developed for agriculture, food and engineered materials company ICL under the EU-backed Hermes project. 'The mechanical principles operated entirely as expected and we will now be looking at details, such as adjusting the hydraulic flow to calibrate the tipping speed', said supervising engineer Martin Malmelöv. The wagon is a further development of a design used in Sweden since 2009, but with the hinge mechanism relocated  from the wagon to the unloading station to save weight. 

TransContainer has awarded Transmashholding a 1·68bn rouble contract to supply 800 Type 13-9744-02 flat wagons between April and November 2017. The wagons are designed to carry 20 ft and 40 ft containers, timber between 3 m and 13·2 m in length, sheet metal and steel pipes betwee 350 and 1 200 mm in diameter, with the range of freight expected to reduce empty trips.

Altaivagon subsidiary Kemerovohimmash has begun series production of Type 15-2148 ammonia tank wagons with an internal diameter of 3 200 mm and 86 m3 capacity. The design was developed in co-operation with chemical company Azot, which has ordered 400 to replace its life-expired fleet in 2017-20. 

Davies Turner and Air Sea Transport now offer a weekly less-than-container-load rail service from China to Warszawa with onward road transport to the UK under bond provided by Polish partner Raben. Transit times to the UK are 23 days from Hefei and 21 days from Wuhan. 'We had been investigating the practicalities of a rail freight service from China to the UK and Ireland for some time and conducted a number of trials in 2016, before officially launching the service in January', said Davies Turner Chairman Philip Stephenson. 'We also offer a 25 day service to Ireland in conjunction with our own office in Dublin.' 

Uruguayan company SELF has operated a 27-wagon test train carrying 810 tonnes of pine logs over the 477 km between Tranqueras and the Port of Montevideo.

Vostokcement has decided to establish its own wagon fleet, in response to rising lease fees and a shortage of wagons resulting from Russia's ban on wagon life-extension projects. It has bought 84 second hand wagons, and ordered 20 new open wagons from Promtraktorvagon. 

On April 5 Green Cargo switched the terminal in Malmö used by the three times per week Belgium Direct freight service launched in October 2016.