Ukrainian Railways reduced iron ore export shipments by 4% m/m in April

In April 2023, Ukrainian Railways (UZ) reduced export shipments of iron ore by 4% compared to the previous month – to 1.665 million tons. Rail.Insider informs about it with reference to the data of the UZ Export Office.

The share of iron ore in the structure of export transportation of the railway operator for the month was 34% compared to 32.1% a month earlier. Transportation of ferrous metals abroad in April 2023 amounted to 414,000 tons (+16% m/m), or 8% of the total volume of export transportation for this period.

“In April, 414,000 tons of ferrous metals were transported by rail for export, which is the highest figure for the entire period of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation,” noted Valeriy Tkachev, deputy director of UZ commercial work department.

Export transportation of grain in April amounted to 2.13 million tons, or 43% of the total volume of such transportation. Thus, grain cargoes occupy the first place in terms of the volume of transportation in April. On the second place – iron ore, and on the third – ferrous metals.

In total, in April 2023, Ukrainian Railways transported 4.903 million tons of cargo for export, which is 7.5% less compared to the previous month, and 25.6% more compared to the same period in 2022. In January-April 2023, the railway operator transported up to 20.44 million tons of cargo for export.

The average daily cargo load in April 2023 decreased by 6% compared to March 2022 – to 360.5 thousand tons. Compared to March, the indicator increased by 20.6%.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2022 Ukrainian Railways reduced transportation of iron and manganese ores by 59.2% compared to 2021 – to 41.7 million tons. Volumes of transportation of ferrous metals last year decreased by 57.8% y/y – to 9.2 million tons. In total, during the year UZ transported 150.6 million tons of cargo, which is 52.1% less compared to 2021.