JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) in the first half of 2023 transported 70.5 million tons of cargo, which is 14.5 million tons or 12.4% less compared to the same period of 2022, according to the UZ report on the results of freight work for the first half of the year.
According to statistics, 28.2 million tons of cargo, or 40% of all volumes, were transported in export traffic in the first half of 2023, which is less by 5.2 million tons or 15.4% compared to the first half of 2022.
It is noted that the volume of transportation of iron and manganese ore fell by 44.7%, or 7.003 million tons – to 8.672 million tons.
“Russia’s blockade of sea ports led to a significant restriction of exports. Cargo flows were redirected mainly through Ukraine’s western international railroad crossings to EU countries. Thus, 90% of ore exports are directed through western border crossings,” the UZ report states.
Exports of ferrous metals fell in the first half of the year by 37.8%, or 1.410 million tons – to 2.322 million tons, and although in March-May it significantly exceeded last year’s figures, in June this gap narrowed due to the destruction of the Kakhovska HPP and reduced production of enterprises in Nikopol, Zaporizhzhya and Kryvorizhzhya districts.
Also, by the end of the first half of the year, the export by rail of minstroymaterials decreased – by 56.9%, or 924.3 thousand tons – to 701 thousand tons.
At the same time, in January-June this year, the volume of grain transportation increased – by 44.5% or 4.027 million tons – up to 13.072 million tons and vegetable oil – by 22.5% or 135 thousand tons – up to 736 thousand tons.
In addition, in the first half of 2023, the volume of cement transportation increased – by 33.4% or 130.7 thousand tons – up to 522.4 thousand tons.
As reported, in June this year UZ transported 12.4 mln tons of cargo, which is 31.9% more compared to June 2022 and 7.9% more compared to May 2023, including export shipments of 4 mln tons (+24.3% and +5.6%, respectively).
Transportation of grain cargoes in June 2023 increased to 2 million tons (+48.4% vs. June 2022), construction materials – to 3.1 million tons (+87%), hard coal – to 2.3 million tons ( +16.3%), iron and manganese ore – to 2 million tons. (2,8%).
For comparison, in May this year, Ukrzaliznytsia transported grain cargo 1.83 million tons, construction materials – 2.5 million tons, hard coal – up to 2.22 million tons, iron and manganese ore – 1.96 million tons.
As of today, UZ has 19 railway border crossings with EU countries and Moldova, of which 14 main ones are functioning and provide freight transportation in the direction of: Poland (4 crossings), Romania (2 crossings), Slovakia (2 crossings), Hungary (2 crossings) and Moldova (4 crossings).
Nibulon JV LLC (Mykolaiv), one of the largest operators in the Ukrainian grain market, and Scania Ukraine LLC have signed an agreement to purchase 30 Scania R450 trucks, the grain trader’s press service reports.
“The renewal of the fleet is an integral part of ensuring stable exports of Nibulon. In this case, we are talking about increasing the logistics potential for the transportation of grain by land,” the company wrote on Facebook on Monday.
The grain trader noted that due to the reorientation of export chains during the war and the almost complete loss of river navigation, Nibulon’s logistics business is forced to use combined routes, including grain transportation by truck.
“Nibulon has promised to minimize the load on the roads and minimize its environmental impact. Therefore, the grain is transported by trucks on a short arm to elevators with existing rail shipment capacities.
“Nibulon and Scania Ukraine have been cooperating since 2012. In 2022, Scania Ukraine supplied the grain trader with 15 Scania G400 Euro 5 tractors under the Scania SilverLine program, which includes the purchase of equipment on lease, a service contract, driver training, and a fleet monitoring system. The financing was provided by Scania Credit Ukraine, a member of the Scania Group.
The distribution company Scania Ukraine has been operating in the Ukrainian market since 1998 (before that, it had a representative office since 1993). It has nine service centers (including two of its own in Kyiv and Lviv region).
SCANIA is part of Volkswagen Truck & Bus GmbH and is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks and buses over 16 tons. The company employs 46 thousand people and sells its products in more than 100 countries.
Nibulon JV LLC was established in 1991. It is one of the largest operators in the country’s grain market. It has elevator facilities with a total capacity of about 2 million tons, as well as its own transshipment terminal in Mykolaiv with a capacity of 5 million tons.
JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) in January-May this year carried in communication with the European Union 2.3 times more passengers (786 thousand) compared to the same period of 2022, reported the press service of UZ in Telegram-channel.
In addition, for five months carried 6.4% more passengers than for the same periods of 2016-2019, when in communication with the EU and back by rail was carried a total of 735 thousand people, calculated in the press service.
“In 5 months of 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia carried more passengers in communication with the EU than in the same period cumulatively during the previous four (dokovidnye) years,” said in the message of UZ on Wednesday.
It is specified that in the five months of 2016 was carried 19.8 thousand passengers, 2017 – 98.2 thousand, 2018 – 230.4 thousand, 2019 – 387.2 thousand, 2020 – 171.7 thousand people. Data for January-May 2021 are not given, but in 2022 during this period UZ carried 341.6 thousand passengers in the EU.
The Company notes that there is a clear trend of Ukrainians returning home: the number of people who have left the country since the beginning of 2023 is 369 thousand, and in the opposite direction – to Ukraine – 417 thousand people.
In the UZ also clarified that if in 2016 in communication with the EU were only 8 trains, now their number has increased to 27, of which 15 formed “Ukrzaliznytsia”, and the rest – foreign carriers.
The company recalled that given the increase in demand since last year due to the full-scale invasion of Russia, UZ is expanding connections with other countries, in particular launched seven new trains: № 19/20, № 23/24 “Kiev-Khelm”, № 32/31 “Zaporozhye-Permyshl”, № 53/54, № 89/90 “Kiev-Permyshl”, № 73/74 “Kharkiv-Permyshl” and № 93/94 “Kharkiv-Khelm”.
JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) in May 2023 transported 1836 thousand tons of grain cargo, which is 33% less than a month earlier, said deputy director of the department of commercial work UZ Valery Tkachev at a meeting with representatives of agrarian business on Thursday.
According to his information 1147 thousand tons of grain cargo were sent for export last month, which is 46% less than in April. In domestic communication 683 thousand tons were transported, which is 16% less than in April. Average daily loading in May was 44 thousand tons.
“Two factors influenced the reduction of transportation – the blocking by the aggressor of the “grain corridor”, which affected the delivery of goods by rail to ports, as well as the blocking of exports through “solidarity corridors” by European countries, which led to a halving of cargo handling through the western borders of Ukraine”, – explained Tkachev.
He added that UZ is ready to increase transportation, for which it has sufficient resources.
According to the operational data of UZ, in the first week of June 2023 the volume of grain cargo loading was 380 thousand tons, or 15% of the total cargo. Average daily volumes of transshipment during this period amounted to 54 thousand tons, which is 2.2 times higher than in April.
According to Tkachev, the actual average daily volume of agricultural cargo transshipment through the border crossings in June 2023 increased by 90 cars compared to May. Grain cargo increased by eight cars per day.
A UZ representative said that 9,740 railcars, of which 1,084 railcars with grain cargoes, are heading toward the western border. The queue for agricultural commodities has decreased by 343 cars (24%).
“Wagon congestion is ‘dissipating,’ thanks to the balancing of border loads. As long as the grain corridor works, the load on the western borders is reduced. Also transfer through European countries became more active”, – UZ representative explained.
Speaking about the transshipment of grain at the Ukrainian-Polish border, Tkachev said that in May at the checkpoint “Yagodin-Dorohusk” average daily passed 17.3 cars with grain, crossing “Izov-Grubeshov” – 20 per day, crossing “Mostiska-Medica” – 22.13 per day. At the Romanian BCP “Vadul-Siret-Dornesti” average was 47.7 w/c with grain, BCP “Dyakovo-Halmeu” – 8.5 w/c.
At the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, grain cargo transshipment in May at BCP “Chop-Zakhon” was 39.5 per/c, at BCP “Bat’ovo-Betereshki” in May transshipment of 25.6 per/c was recorded, the maximum rate in May – 93.9 per/c.
“For all Western BCPs, if we analyze the statistics of the last five months, there is a sagging of shipments from one and a half to five times. The remaining restrictions on exports with the permission of transit significantly affect the export of grain through the western borders,” – summarized Tkachev.
The head of UZ reported that, as of June 8, 2023 in the direction of the ports of Greater Odessa moves 2663 railcars with grain cargo. The average daily unloading in June is 493 cars with grain. Unloading waiting time (queue) is 4.9 days.
As of June 8, 1,656 railcars with grain cargo are bound for Port Ismail. Since May 29, the queue decreased by 23.48%. The average daily unloading for June was 122 grain cars. Unloading waiting time (queue) reaches 11.3 days.
“The work of the “grain corridor” today is difficult to predict, the aggressor country constantly changes the number of inspections of ships and puts forward different requirements, in addition the work of the port “Southern” is blocked. The situation in the port of Izmail remains difficult because of the large accumulation of cars. Loading in the port direction is planned taking into account the processing capacity of consignees/operators, but due to weather conditions they unload significantly less than planned volume,” UZ noted.
Transportation of grains and oilseeds from Ukraine to Poland by rail in 2022 increased by 27 times compared to 2021, Rafal Weber, state secretary of Polish Ministry of Infrastructure, said at the International Conference on Transport Development at European level without specifying the absolute figure.
At the same time, Mustafa Nayem, head of Ukraine’s State Agency for Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Development, who attended the conference, noted that new logistics routes may have emerged over that period.
“The activity of Central European countries was decisive in the first weeks and months of the war, so that new logistic routes could have appeared,” his words were quoted by the press service of the Polish ministry on the website of the department.
Nayem stressed that the situation with the growth of traffic requires mobilization from the Polish side and further integration of transport systems of Ukraine and the EU.
Further intensification of trade flows puts Poland before the need to increase the transshipment capacity of port infrastructure, the capacity of which until recently has been a deterrent to the growth of grain shipments from Ukraine, the conference participants noted.
“Ports have to be too big to handle growing cargo flows. The Port of Gdansk is currently reaching its maximum transshipment capacity. We have to anticipate what will happen and prepare more berths,” Lukasz Greinke, director of the Port of Gdańsk, said at the conference.
Last year Poland’s largest seaports, Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin-Swinoujscie, handled a total of more than 133 million tons of cargo, a record, said Grzegorz Witkowski, deputy minister of infrastructure of the Republic of Poland.
He stressed that the Polish government will continue to implement ambitious projects in Polish ports, so that they can meet the challenges associated with the inclusion of the transport corridor “Baltic Sea – Black Sea – Aegean Sea” in the main Trans-European transport network TEN-T.
In January 2023 “Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) increased the volume of transportation of iron ore by 45% compared to December 2022 – up to 1.14 million tons, Deputy Director of Commercial Work Department of UZ Valery Tkachev said at a meeting of the Office of the exporters at UZ.
“After April (last year – IF), when 2.3 million tons of ore were transported, the volumes decreased: in November-December they dropped to 770-780 thousand tons in export traffic. However, January (this year) is very good news: we have already transported 358 thousand tons more, i.e. 1.14 million tons. The ore is 45% January to December,” he said.
Tkachev added that the positive dynamics of the ore will remain in February.
According to him, in January this year, the volume of transportation of ferrous metals increased by 2.1 times (+202.3 thousand tons) compared to the previous month – up to 380 thousand tons. “And this is also very encouraging”, – said Tkachev.
According to him, the transportation of cement has also increased. “But in October-November and December 2022 we already transported more than in the same months of 2021, which also shows the positive dynamics”, – Ukrzaliznytsia representative stated.
In particular, in October 2022 the volume of cement transportation was 87 thousand tons (against 85 thousand tons in 2021), in November – 83 thousand tons (66 thousand tons respectively), in December – 70 thousand tons (49 thousand tons). In January 2023 the volume of traffic decreased to 54 thousand tons, which is still higher than in January 2022 – 29 thousand tons.
UZ notes that the demand for cement greatly stimulated its consumption of sleeper plants UZ, which increased production in 2022 by 4.7 times – up to 832 thousand sleepers.
Tkachev also said that the volume of sunflower oil transportation from 20 thousand tons in March 2022 rose in January to almost 134 thousand tons, or 6.7 times, half of all exports of sunflower oil in the past month through the ports on the “grain corridor”.
The deputy director of the department said that in January 58% of all export cargo shipped by UZ, or 3 million tons, fell to the grain, while the second place – iron ore with 22%.
As reported, in January this year compared to December last year, the total volume of transportation by UZ increased by 11% – to 11.29 million tons. In 2022 it was more than halved compared to 2021 – to 150.6 million tons from 314.3 million tons.
UZ today uses 13 railway crossings, which border the EU countries and Moldova. In January the most cargo went through Izov-Hrubeshuv – 0.8 million tons, or 16%. However, port stations are further among the largest export cargo transportation points: Odessa-Port and Chornomorsk-TIS – 13% each, Chornomorsk-Port – 10%, followed by neighboring Uzhgorod – 8%, Chop and Batevo – 7% each.
