JSC Ukrzaliznytsia, taking into account the material losses inflicted on Ukraine by the Russian Federation and Belarus, will not return their freight cars to Russian and Belarusian owners, Deputy Director of the Department of Commercial Work of Ukrzaliznytsia Valeriy Tkachev said on his Facebook page on Thursday night.
According to him, over the past 24 hours, the owners of Belarusian and Russian railcars began to contact the Center for Transport Logistics of Ukrzaliznytsia with demands for redirection and return of their rolling stock, which is now in Ukraine.
“Looking at the material damage caused to Ukraine – the aggressor country (Russia) and its ally (Republic of Belarus); and most importantly, given the thousands of innocent victims killed by the invaders… all rolling stock, cargo and other things will not be returned to the occupying countries!” Tkachev said.
Ukrzaliznytsia will take humanitarian cargo to its warehouse in Lviv for further shipment by rail to Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhia and Odesa.
“The priority types of cargo are medicines, hygiene products, long-term storage food, clothing, bottled water, baby products [food, diapers, etc.], sleeping bags and mats,” Ukrzaliznytsia said on the Telegram channel.
The company asks to provide goods in whole packages, preferably on pallets.
Cargoes are accepted at the address: Lviv, 2 Shyroka Street.
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).
