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.
Hungary will allocate funds for the transportation of food products from Ukraine within the “Grain from Ukraine” initiative, as well as provide logistical support, said the President of Hungary Katalin Novak.
“We support Ukraine at the bilateral level. We have allocated more than 172 million euros, and today Hungary has committed to provide $3.5 million to ensure the transportation of 10 thousand tons of wheat and food products,” – said Novak at the summit on food security.
She also called for the use of the Ukrainian-Hungarian border as an additional food transportation channel.
“We support not only financially, we also support logistically. Our special terminal on the border between Hungary and Ukraine should increase and speed up the transportation of necessary goods,” the president said.
“And, of course, this is all happening because of the war in Ukraine. And democratic channels must be restored. In the end, there must be a just peace, a peace for all of us,” she stressed.
“Ukrzaliznytsia has increased cargo transportation by rail in October to 12.06 million tons, which is by 0.38 million tons, or 3.3%, more than in September, said deputy director of the department of commercial work “UZ” Valery Tkachev at a meeting with industry participants on Wednesday.
“In particular, 5.2 million tons (-0.137 million tons, or -0.3% compared to September 2022) were transported in export traffic. From March to October 2022, monthly rail freight volume increased from 8.299 million tons to 12.06 million tons per month (up +3.7 million tons per month or +45.3%). But this monthly volume of transportation, unfortunately, is much lower than the pre-war level,” Tkachev said on Facebook.
According to him, the transport of grain in October rose to 3.6 million tons (+197.8 thousand tons, or 5.8%), cement – up to 288.6 million tons (+21.9 thousand tons, or 8.2%), coal – up to 2.2 million tons (+18.7 thousand tons, or 0.8%), construction materials – up to 1.9 million tons (+85.6 thousand tons, or 4.6%).
At the same time, transportation of iron ore / manganese ore decreased to 1.4 million tons (-64.4 thousand tons, or 4.3%), and ferrous metals – up to 628.5 thousand tons (-63.8 thousand tons, or 9.2%), said the representative of UZ.
He also informed that in October railcar queue in the direction of western border crossing points has reduced by 1674 wagons, or 9%: from 18.2 thousand to 16.6 thousand at the beginning of November.
At the same time, according to Tkachev, the volume of orders at almost all border crossings significantly exceeds their capacity, so the Transport Logistics Center (TLC) is forced to apply reduction factors to match all orders received from exporters.
“Currently, all orders received from exporters before the 20th of the month preceding the transportation are processed by the CTL and partially agreed upon by foreign carriers and JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia”, – added Tkachev.
In addition, some foreign carriers temporarily suspended coordination of orders because of the large queue of loaded cars, said Deputy Director.
This summer, the State Agency for Highways of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) does not introduce seasonal restrictions for trucks with a total weight of up to 40 tons during the daytime at elevated air temperatures.
According to the agency on its Facebook page on Tuesday, this decision was made primarily due to the war in the country, the reorientation of exports to the road network and significant changes in logistics.
“Before the full-scale invasion of Russia, Ukraine exported mainly by sea. Now, due to the blocking of ports, the country has redirected the flow of goods to rail and road. We understand the importance of logistics today, therefore, in order to avoid interruptions in the transportation of vital goods, seasonal restrictions are not introduced this year” , the ministry said in a statement.
At the same time, Ukravtodor reminds drivers and carriers that the movement of trucks must be carried out in compliance with weight parameters both in terms of total mass and axle load at any time of the day. According to the norms, the maximum weight of a cargo vehicle for transportation on the roads of the country is 40 tons.
