Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) suffered losses of UAH 600-700 million in July-August and expects a small loss in 2024, despite profitable operations in the first half of the year.
“For six months (of 2024 – IF-U), we did have a profit of up to UAH 3 billion, but in July and August we faced losses. In July, it was about UAH 600-700 million, and in August we also expect a loss of up to UAH 700 million… we do not yet have the volumes of profitable cargo that give us a margin of safety,” said Yevhen Lyashchenko, Chairman of the Board of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia, at the Business Breakfast of Forbes Ukraine on Wednesday.
He expressed hope that the situation would improve as grain exports intensify after the harvesting campaign. However, this will not avoid a small loss for the year.
“I believe that if grain is exported and the volume of transportation is slightly leveled, we will make a small loss for the year, because in any case we are increasing the volume of transportation, but losses on some shipments are also increasing,” Lyashchenko said.
JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” (“UZ”) plans to complete the construction of the European gauge (1435 mm) “Chop-Uzhgorod” by July 2025, the press service of the company reported in the Telegram channel on Wednesday.
According to the company, the construction project provides for the construction of 22 km of railway track of European standard, reconstruction of artificial structures, facilities and engineering networks, as well as equipping the tracks with two-way semi-automatic blocking and microprocessor-based dispatch centralization devices.
It is noted that the cost of the project is UAH 1.3 billion, 50% financed from the EU Connecting Europe Facilit (CEF).
“UZ” specified that currently railroaders are assembling at their own facilities rail sleeper grating. The repair of artificial constructions along the site is also in progress.
Railroaders have already completed a set of preparatory works, including cleaning the site of construction from the thistles, bushes, completed the repair of track number 2 of the station “Strumkovka” for the movement of railroad construction equipment.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia received the opportunity to implement the project of construction of 22 km of Euro track “Chop-Uzhgorod” as a result of successful participation in the competitive selection of CEF projects in 2022.
Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) will purchase 10 thousand tons of diesel fuel from state-owned Ukrnafta PJSC following the fourth tender for the purchase of diesel fuel through Prozorro Market, the company said in a telegram on Wednesday.
According to the release, Ukrnafta offered the best price of UAH 50.97 thousand per ton.
It is noted that Ukrzaliznytsia will sign a contract with the winner in the near future. It is specified that all diesel should be painted to prevent theft.
Earlier, UZ has already purchased 25 thousand tons of diesel fuel through Prozorro Market at prices of UAH 50.5 – 52.9 thousand per ton. The company notes that, taking into account the Platts indices at the time of the selection of the winners, this corresponds to the prices of direct contracts with European producers, including all related costs for delivery and customs clearance.
In particular, in June 2024, Ukrnafta was awarded contracts for the supply of 15 thousand tons. In July, the winner of the tender for 10 thousand tons was Sokar Ukraine Trading House LLC.
It is noted that both winners at the stage of their registration in the electronic catalog of the electronic procurement system were qualified by the Professional Procurement State Enterprise and guaranteed that their products were not of Russian, Belarusian or Iranian origin.
As reported, UZ used to buy diesel directly from European producers, but in April 2024, after amendments to a government decree, the company no longer has this option and can only buy diesel through Prozorro.
Rail container transportation in Ukraine in the first seven months of 2024 amounted to 160,268 thousand twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), which is 58% more than in the same period last year, said Valery Tkachev, Deputy Director of the Department of Transportation Technology and Commercial Work of Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ).
“This means that we have a record volume of transportation in seven months. It even surpassed the pre-war figures,” he said at a meeting of the export office on Wednesday.
In addition, the Liski Transport Service Center is going to start signing long-term contracts with cargo owners for the use of fitting platforms for a specific period of time and at a fixed price, which will depend on the volume of transportation, Ukrzaliznytsia reported.
Due to the nighttime shelling of the railway infrastructure in Poltava region, Kharkiv-bound trains are still running with delays, and there will be a delay in the departure of return trains on Sunday evening, Ukrzaliznytsia reported.
According to a message posted on Telegram, trains #21/22 Kharkiv – Lviv (+10:34); #103/104 Kramatorsk – Lviv (+10:34); #1/2 Kharkiv – Ivano-Frankivsk (+10:06); #201/202 Kharkiv – Vorokhta (+10:06); #63/64 Kharkiv – Lviv (+4:57); #111/112 Izyum – Lviv (+4:57); #112/111 Lviv – Izyum (+2:25) are delayed.
Also in the evening, flight #64/63 Lviv – Kharkiv will depart from the terminal station approximately 2 hours later than its schedule; # 112/111 Lviv – Izyum will depart from the terminal station approximately 2 hours later than its schedule; # 2/1 Ivano-Frankivsk – Kharkiv will depart from the terminal station approximately 3 hours later than its schedule; # 202/201 Vorokhta – Kharkiv will depart from the terminal station as scheduled, but will receive an unscheduled parking at Ivano-Frankivsk station lasting about 3 hours.
Earlier it was reported that on the night of August 4, as a result of shelling in Poltava region, the railway infrastructure was damaged, a number of Kharkiv trains changed their routes and are running with delays.
JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) has made changes to the schedule of two Intercity+ trains on the Kyiv-Premysl route to reduce the risk of delays at the border.
“Starting August 10: train No. 715 Kyiv-Premysl will depart from Kyiv at 11:26 instead of 11:59. Train No. 705 Kyiv-Premierzl will depart at 19:19 instead of 20:05,” the company’s press service posted on Facebook on Thursday.
At the same time, as indicated, the arrival time of both trains to Przemyśl will not change. The additional time will be used to extend the stop at Lviv station for border and customs control.
Due to the high traffic, Ukrzaliznytsia advises passengers to allow at least 2-2.5 hours for the transfer.
