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.
