Titagarh Firema signs first freight wagon order for GCF

Firema has signed a contract for the supply of 36 flat wagons for intermodal and special use with the company GCF Generale Costruzione Ferroviarie S.p.A. for an amount of EUR 5 million. Production is scheduled to start in January 2024 with the first deliveries in August.
This contract marks Firema’s entry into the freight wagon market, thus expanding its business sector and product portfolio, in line with the Business Plan approved in November 2022 when Invitalia became a shareholder of the company. Firema has decided to dedicate part of its production area to the freight wagon sector on the strength of the experience of Titagarh rail systems limited, the largest wagon manufacturer in the Indian market with a production capacity of 10,000 vehicles per year.
“We are very proud that GCF Generale Costruzione Ferroviarie S.p.A. has placed its trust in us by choosing us as a partner,” says Titagarh Firema S.p.A. CEO Carlo Logli. “This event is an important milestone for our development, but also for the renaissance of an industrial activity that has now disappeared from the national territory. To date, Firema is the only manufacturer of freight wagons in Italy capable of responding to the growing needs for renewal of the freight fleet of Italian and European operators.”
“Until now, the absence of freight wagon manufacturers in Italy has made our country dependent on the import of these goods,” says GFC S.p.A. CEO Edoardo Rossi. “While the steady decline in the production of freight wagons in Western Europe has also made sourcing difficult.”
Titagarh Firema S.p.A, a note points out, is among the most important Italian companies in the railway industry. Founded in Caserta, Campania, it boasts 90 years of experience in the design and production of railway vehicles. With the acquisition by the multinational railway group Titagarh (2015) and the entry of Invitalia S.p.A (2022), Firema now has the financial solidity necessary to achieve increasingly ambitious goals. The most recent milestone: in 2022 the company was awarded a contract worth EUR 282 million for the Framework Agreement for the 10-year supply and maintenance of 38 trains to the Lazio Region, in competition with an international Swiss company.