JSC Ukrzaliznytsia has launched the first container train with export cargo on the route Ukraine – China. As Interfax-Ukraine was informed at the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine on Tuesday, the train departed from the Liski container terminal in Kyiv.
The train consisted of 43 40-foot containers with lumber.
Following to Xian, the train will cover almost 10,000 km across the territory of four countries. Estimated travel time is about 18 days.
“In the middle of September, we received the 50th container train with imported cargo from China. Today, we are sending the first container train with Ukrainian cargo to China. We plan that these trains will become regular,” Board Chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia Oleksandr Kamyshin said.
According to him, the optimal transport for the development of trade relations between Ukraine and China is rail container transportation.
The Ukrzaliznytsia’s branch Liski provides a range of services in the field of organizing railway and intermodal transportation of transit and export-import cargoes in containers. The terminal allows for complex forwarding services for customers’ cargo with door-to-door delivery of cargo through the territory of the CIS, Baltic countries and Europe.
The center has container terminals in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa and a transshipment complex in Chop.
In 2021, Polish company PCC Intermodal S.A. plans to increase the number of container train connections between Poland and Ukraine from one to three per week, according to the company’s website on the occasion of the first anniversary of the service, which connects several cities in Poland with the Ukrainian station of Mostiska.
“We did the first tests and tried to launch regular services to Ukraine already in 2011. The economical and political situation in Ukraine has stopped this project, until last year. In the spring of 2020, we successfully returned with the project. In the spring time 2020 we have successfully came back with the Ukrainian project! The customers being satisfied while having easy access to the alternative logistics solution, using rail connections, keep us developing the intermodal services to Ukraine. We have already booked the new platforms for this connection and are happy to welcome everyone on board of our regular trains,” the company’s press service said.
Curently, the company offers regular intermodal connections, once a week to/from Mostyska in relation with: to Gdańsk, Gdynia, Central Poland, Upper Silesia, Lower Silesia, Berlin, Hamburg, Duisburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp.
The most common goods transported to/from Ukraine at the moment are: chemical products, polymers, fertillizers, ferroalloys.
Two container trains from China passed the station Kyiv-Lisky in January 2021, another train is on the way, the press service of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia said on Wednesday.
According to the company, in January 2021, a total of 14 trains passed across Ukraine in the direction of China-EU countries (seven in the direction of Poland, six to Hungary, and one to Slovakia).
As reported, 22 container trains from China arrived in 2020. Over the past year, more than 425,000 containers in conventional units (TEU) were transported across the territory of Ukraine, which was 10.7% more than in 2019.
The third container train from China on a new route, which delivered 41 forty-foot containers with shoes, non-ferrous metal products, medical and pharmaceutical equipment, consumer goods and other combined cargo, arrived at the Kyiv-Lisky station.
The press service of Ukrzaliznytsia reported last week, the company has already received 17 trains from different regions of China. These trains run from Wuhan and Jinannan and carry 43 containers with various cargoes: magnesium sulfate, equipment, aluminum frames, disposable syringes, PET bottles and light industrial products.
Trains cover the distance of transportation, which is more than 9,000 km across the territory of four countries, in 15 days.
Ukrzaliznytsia will continue receiving trains from China according to a new logistics scheme with a further increase in their frequency.
“The introduction of new logistics schemes for the transportation of goods allows attracting additional cargo flows and opens up new opportunities for the users of transport services to deliver goods to their destination. This work is carried out together with the solution of pressing issues regarding tariff policy, technical re-equipment, improving the technology of the transportation process and services,” the company said.
Ukrzaliznytsia added that its branch Lisky center of transport service plans to continue active work on identifying new promising routes for container trains.
The first container train on the China-Kazakhstan-Russia-Belarus-Ukraine new route, which delivered 41 containers with refrigeration equipment, has arrived in Ukraine.
The press service of Ukrzaliznytsia said on Thursday morning that the train had been on the way for 19 days.
Work is underway on the frequency of the train running once a week. “If there is sufficient cargo, the frequency of running will be increased and the train will run according to a clear schedule,” the press service said.
Work on the route’s capacity filling continues, “especially in the direction of receiving subsidies from China for cargo, so that the conditions of cargo transportation are economically attractive for carriers.”
In addition, Ukrzaliznytsia is developing an online service to enable customers to order a container seat on a train and pay for the service online, similar to purchasing tickets for passenger trains.
Ukrzaliznytsia recalled that direct container trains from China to Ukraine began to run on the territory of four countries from June 8, 2020. During this time, 13 trains have already arrived.
Container traffic accounts for 2.3% of the total volume of cargo transportation by rail in Ukraine. Currently, 36 container trains organized by Ukrzaliznytsia run on a regular basis across Ukraine.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia has served the first transit train on the Sanya-Slawkow (China-Poland) route, head of the company Yevhen Kravtsov said on his Facebook page.
“The first container train from China to the European Union traveled 39 hours and 54 minutes through the territory of Ukraine. For the first time, the train traveled on the wide gauge LHS without an overload on the border. Colleagues met it in Poland’s Slawkow. The China-E transit route through Ukraine is reliable, cheap and convenient for all participants in the logistics chain, and this train is a good and first important sign in organizing large-scale projects with China and Central Asia for Ukrzaliznytsia,” Kravtsov said.
He also said that Ukrzaliznytsia has a number of advantages for such routes and their development in the future, as it can be part of the land, sea and TITR routes (Trans-Caspian International Transport Route).
At the same time, he noted a decrease in the volume of transit traffic of the country as a whole.
“Since 2008, the volume of transit traffic of Ukraine has been falling. Transit from China to the EU countries has a number of artificial barriers with political coloring. This is not a business issue, but geopolitics,” Kravtsov explained, adding that Ukrzaliznytsia is the most reliable partner for transit, as it offers alternative and profitable routes.
According to the head of Ukrzaliznytsia, the indicated container train left China’s Xi’an for Slawkow, the travel time was 12 days. According to Kravtsov, for the Ukrainian railway company this is an effective beginning of the year in freight traffic.
