JSC Ukrzaliznytsia received UAH 21 million in net profit in January 2022 versus a loss of UAH 693 million in January 2021, Oleksandr Kamyshin, head of the company’s board, said on his Telegram channel on Monday.
According to him, revenue increased by 63%, to UAH 9.3 billion (versus UAH 5.7 billion in January 2021). EBITDA increased five times to UAH 2.6 billion (January 2021 – UAH 506 million).
“This is despite the fact that now we have received UAH 1.8 billion exchange loss, and last year there was UAH 117 million exchange income,” he said.
As reported, JSC Ukrzaliznytsia received UAH 457 million in net profit in 2021 versus a loss of UAH 11.9 billion a year earlier.
The World Bank may provide the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine with financing in the amount of $250 million for the modernization of the railway.
According to a report on the bank’s website, the project is intended to increase the efficiency and financial stability of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia.
Financing of the project may begin in FY2022, which ends on June 30 at the World Bank.
In addition, according to a posting on the bank’s website, it may also provide Ukraine with $400 million in financing for the Road Safety Facility.
The purpose of this project, as noted in the report, is to support the implementation of the Vision Zero concept in Ukraine (an international program to improve road safety and reduce mortality in road traffic accidents).
Financing of the project may begin in FY2023, which starts at the World Bank on July 1, 2022.
CEO of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC Oleksandr Kamyshin and CEO of Alstom Henri Poupart-Lafarge have signed a memorandum of understanding.
The signing took place at a press conference of Presidents of Ukraine and France Volodymyr Zelensky and Emmanuel Macron in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Earlier, at this press conference, Zelensky said that on February 8, Ukraine and France finalized the agreements and switched to the practical stage the implementation of the project on the supply of 130 ALSTOM locomotives worth EUR 900 million.
As reported, in May, Ukraine and France signed a framework intergovernmental agreement on financing the supply of 130 heavy-duty electric locomotives worth EUR 900 million for Ukrzaliznytsia by Alstom. The document was ratified by the Verkhovna Rada on July 1, 2021.
Alstom welcomed the ratification of the intergovernmental agreement and said that “the next important step is the signing of commercial agreements in the second half of 2021.” This will allow Alstom to start supplying locomotives to the Ukrainian market, which will also include 35% local content associated with the production and maintenance of electric locomotives.
Alstom is one of the world leaders (along with Siemens and Bombardier) in the production of power equipment and railway transport. It operates in more than 70 countries.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia transported 26.118 million tonnes of cargo in January 2022, which is 18% more than in January 2021 (22.093 million tonnes).
Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of the company board, said on Telegram this indicator of cargo transportation is also higher than in January 2020 (23.915 million tonnes) and January 2019 (24.553 million tonnes).
According to him, the average daily cargo load in January 2022 increased by 15% compared to January 2021 (604,000 tonnes) – up to 694,000 tonnes, which is also higher than the figures for the same period in 2020 (662,000 tonnes), 2019 (656,000 tonnes) and 2018 (691,000 tonnes).
Cargo turnover in January of this year increased by 32% compared to January 2021 (11.994 billion tonne-kilometers) – up to 15.813 billion tonne-kilometers, which is also higher than in January 2020 (12.997 billion tonne-kilometers) and January 2019 (14.906 billion tonne-kilometers).
According to the results of 2021, Ukrzaliznytsia transported more than 25 million passengers in long-distance passenger trains, which is 150% more than in 2020, when 16 million passengers were transported.
As the press service of Ukrzaliznytsia reported on Monday, train pair No. 45/46 Uzhgorod – Lysychansk became the most popular in terms of the number of passengers carried in 2021: in 2021, 899,700 passengers used it. The second in demand was train pair No. 41/42 Dnipro – Truskavets (520,700 passengers). The third is train pair No. 69/70 Mariupol – Lviv (485,300 passengers).
In addition, the top five most popular trains included train pair No. 91/92 Odesa – Kostiantynivka (465,700 passengers) and train pair No. 145/146 Kyiv – Izmail (449,400 passengers).
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia in 2021 increased the rate of electrification of tracks by 23 times compared to the average annual electrification rate over the past eight years, to 70 km.
As reported on the company’s website, at the moment, work continues on the strategically important section of Kovel – Izov – State Border, railway workers have already electrified 43 km of the route.
“The implementation of the electrification project in this direction will have a huge positive result for the company and the country: from energy saving to reducing the cost of purchasing fuel and lubricants, from increasing the throughput of the site to simplifying the technology for organizing traffic,” Chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia management board Oleksandr Kamyshin said.
The company said that work on the Kovel – Izov – State Border section is taking place within the framework of the Big Construction program of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
It is expected that the electrification of the section will increase the capacity of the direction and, accordingly, reduce the time for transporting goods to the EU countries.
In addition, electrification will allow increasing the weight of freight trains from 4,600 tonnes to 5,500 tonnes, and to reduce the operating costs of the railway by UAH another 136.4 million per year and significantly reduce emissions into the atmosphere (up to 12,000 tonnes per year).
The Kovel – Izov – State Border section is located within Volyn region and is currently operated by diesel traction. The main freight traffic is export iron ore, which flows from enterprises in the Kryvy Rih area to metallurgical enterprises in Poland. The section is the most costly part of the route of this traffic flow.
