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.
Whole Europe must unite its efforts and act boldly in order to solve the problem of safe transportation and shipment or Ukrainian grain, Prime Minister of Italy Mario Draghi has said.
“We must do everything possible to not let the situation become dramatic… To avoid… a serious crisis, we must ensure safe transportation of grain. This must not cause a global disaster. For this we must focus on how to organize grain transportation through the Black Sea. Russia, unfortunately, does not make advances. We must fight against this problem bravely and boldly, just like President Zelensky. And we, the Europeans, must act together,” Draghi said during a press conference following a meeting of the leaders of Ukraine, France, Germany, Italy, and Romania in Kyiv on Thursday.
He added that there is some time to solve this problem as “the harvest will be ready mainly in September.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the government should speed up the transportation of fuel from European ports to Ukrainian consumers.
“The key task for government members is to speed up the transportation of fuel from European ports to our consumers. The volume of such transportation should increase daily,” Zelensky said in a traditional video message on Saturday.
He said that at present, everything is being done to ensure that the state fulfills all social obligations, despite the budget deficit due to the destruction of the Ukrainian economy by the Russian army.
At a meeting with members of the government on Saturday, Zelensky recalled that the issue of fuel shortage was raised last week. “At the beginning of last week, we agreed that we would resolve the issue this week. The week is ending,” Zelensky said.
In turn, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko called the main problem – the logistics of receiving fuel for Ukraine in Eastern European ports.
“If you look at imports, over the past five days we have been importing exactly the same amount, even a little more, than we consume. Europe was simply not ready: not even in terms of resources, but in terms of logistics. We have a bottleneck – these are ports, European ports,” she said.
“We have Gdansk, Gdynia, Swinoujscie, Constanta, Burgas – there is a traffic jam. We asked [Foreign Minister] Dmytro Kuleba to get involved already at the international level – to ask for a green corridor for Ukraine in these ports,” Svyrydenko added.
