In 2024, Ukrzaliznytsia plans to put 120 grain hoppers for conventional and European gauge into operation, Gennady Maydanyk, director of the commercial work department of UZ, said at a meeting of the export office at UZ on Wednesday.
According to him, the recently introduced hopper cars for 1520 and 1435 mm gauge transportation are already being tested.
“By the end of the year, the company plans to add 120 of these grain hoppers to the fleet of the Transportation Logistics Center branch. The main advantage of the cars is that they can travel across Ukraine and abroad without overloading,” explained the UZ representative.
In 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) transported 148.4 million tons of cargo by all types of traffic, down 1.5% from 2022 and due to the availability of pre-war January-February 2022 in the comparison database, the company’s website reports.
According to it, from March to December 2023, UZ transported an average of 23% more cargo per month than in the same period in 2022.
It is specified that November was a record month last year, when the company transported 14.1 million tons of cargo.
According to the release, 22.3 million tons of cargo were transported to seaports for further export last year, while 34.4 million tons were exported via land crossings.
Domestic transportation in 2023 increased by 11.4% to 84.8 million tons compared to 2022.
According to UZ, the leaders in terms of cargo volumes in 2023 were grains – 30.6 million tons (+5.9%), construction materials – 29.6 million tons (+29.6%), iron and manganese ore – 27.5 million tons (-13.2%), coal – 26.2 million tons (-11.2%) and ferrous metals – 8.2 million tons (-10.6%).
In 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia JSC transported 30.58 million tons of grain cargo, up 5.9%, or 1.708 million tons, from a year earlier, said Valery Tkachev, deputy director of the commercial work department of UZ, at a meeting with agricultural market participants on Thursday.
According to him, 22.729 mln tons of grain crops were transported for export by rail, which is 178 thsd tonnes more than in 2022. Of these, 14.324 mln tonnes (-4.9%) were shipped to the ports, and 8 mln 405 thsd tonnes (+12.2%) – to the western border crossings.
“Before the embargo on imports of Ukrainian grain by neighboring countries was imposed in April, 900 thsd tonnes to 1 mln tonnes of grain were transported by rail per month. After the ban was imposed, the volume was almost halved. The work of ports in 2023 was significantly affected by the uncertainty of the “grain corridor”, Tkachev stated.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 63 million tons of cargo for export in 2023.
In 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) transported 201.26 thousand twenty-foot equivalent containers (TEUs), up 34% from 2022 and in line with the figures for 2019 before the war, Valery Tkachev, deputy director of the company’s commercial department, said on Wednesday at a meeting on the development of intermodal transportation.
According to him, before Russia’s full-scale invasion, UZ’s container transportation had been growing by 11-22% for four years, including 14% in 2021, but after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, it fell by 46% to 150 thousand TEUs.
“If in 2021 we already reached 279,792 thousand TEU, in 2022 we fell to 150 thousand TEU, that is, 46%,” Tkachev emphasized.
He noted that the rapid recovery of container transportation in 2023 was due to the blocking of Ukrainian seaports.
“If you look at the traffic, 62% of all container transportation is export, 19% is domestic transportation, and 19% is import,” he described the market.
The UZ representative added that grain is the most popular containerized cargo, accounting for 49%. Ferrous metals are in second place (17%), followed by oil cake (14%) and oil (10%).
Tkachev emphasized that the 2023 figures, although positive, are significantly lower than those set out in the development strategy of Ukrzaliznytsia, which provided for the transportation of more than 1 million TEUs per year.
He reminded that in March 2023, UZ launched the intermodal train service, and almost 200 trains were sent.
At the same time, the deputy director of the commercial work department noted that after testing the counter-rail transportation to Poland in December 2023, problems with tariffication arose.
“We are still receiving invoices from the Polish side. There was an agreement on a comprehensive rate, but for some reason the Polish colleagues continue to adjust it, so we are now working with the Polish side to get a single comprehensive rate for this service, and then we will be able to work more rhythmically and transport container trains,” added Tkachev.
Over 10 days in January, Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) reached an average daily load of 99.5 thousand tons, which is 37.3% more than in December, said Valery Tkachev, deputy director of UZ’s Commercial Department, at a meeting with agricultural market participants on Thursday.
“I hope that these figures will be maintained, and this will allow us to transport more than 3 million tons of grain per month,” Tkachev said.
He specified that on January 1, UZ loaded 24 thousand tons of grain, on January 2 – 63 thousand tons, but starting from January 3, this figure reached 105-123 thousand tons per day.
According to him, the share of grain cargo in the total network load is growing and has already reached 26%.
According to Mr. Tkachev, over 10 days of January, UZ transported 991.3 thousand tons of grain cargo in export traffic, including 196.9 thousand tons towards the western borders and 794.4 thousand tons towards the ports of Greater Odesa.
He noted that Chornomorsk became the leader among the ports with 257.2 thousand tons, followed by Odesa with 249.1 thousand tons and TIS in Pivdennyi with 93.4 thousand tons.
At the same time, according to Tkachev, on the western border, Yagodyn received the most grain cargo – 41.8 thousand tons of grain, followed by Vadul Siret with 36.2 thousand tons and Chop with 33.1 thousand tons.
Mr. Tkachev noted that Poland averages 85.6 railcars per day, including 51 railcars through the Yagodyn-Dorogusk crossing, 23.7 railcars through Mostyska-Medyka, and 11 railcars through Izov-Khrubeshuv.
“Over the past week, the average daily rate of railcar transfer at the Polish border increased by 10 cars per day, which is an increase of more than 13%,” Tkachev added.
According to him, Romania receives about 100 railcars with grain daily, and over the past week this figure has deteriorated by 14 w/d, or 12.3%. The Vadul-Siret crossing is followed by 66.2 v/d, Dyakove – 2.5 v/d and Reni – 31 v/d.
He clarified that Hungary averages 45.5 cars per day, and over the past week the figure has improved by 4.5 v/d, or 11%, while Slovakia – 59.3 v/d with an increase of 5.6 v/d, or 10.5% over the past week.
Tkachev emphasized that if we take oilcake and grain, the average daily transfer across all crossings is 385 v/d. Over the past week, this figure has increased by 15 vdpd, or 4%.
On December 29, Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) will launch an additional run of train No. 816 Lviv-Rakhiv, the UZ press service said on Friday evening.
“We are strengthening the peak transportation day on December 29 with the flight of the regional train No. 816 Lviv – Rakhiv! The train will be useful not only for residents of Lviv, but with a transfer at Lviv station – for passengers from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia and other cities,” the message posted on UZ’s Telegram channel reads.
The company specifies that train No. 816 will depart from Lviv on December 29 at 15:22, Ivano-Frankivsk at 17:39 – 17:43, Yaremche at 19:10 – 19:14, Tatariv-Bukovel at 19:39 – 19:41, Vorokhta at 19:52 – 19:56, Yasinia at 20:34 – 20:36, Kvasy at 20:59 – 21:01, arriving in Rakhiv at 21:19. The train will also stop at the stations Khodoriv, Burshtyn, Halych, Delyatyn, Mykulychyn, Voronenko, Lazeshchyna, Svydovets, and Bilyn.
It is also reported that in Lviv, this train can be transferred from trains #79 Dnipro (22:06) – Kyiv (05:42 – 06:10) – Lviv (12:59), #86 Zaporizhzhia (18:48) – Lviv (14:15) and #63 Kharkiv (22:38) – Kyiv (05:35 – 06:35) – Lviv (13:39).
