Ukrzaliznytsia in January 2023 increased iron ore transportation by 46% m/m

In January 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) increased railway transportation of iron and manganese ores by 46% compared to the same month of 2022 – up to 1.7 million tons. Olexander Kamyshyn, chairman of the UZ’s board, reported about it on his Telegram channel.

Among the largest volumes of cargo transportation, except for iron ore, in January 2023:

• grain – 3.6 million tons (+10.8% m/m);
• hard coal – 2 million tons (-3.2% m/m);
• mineral construction materials – 1.34 million tons (+0.1% m/m).

In general, in the first month of 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 11.293 million tons of cargo, which is 11% more than in December 2022. The largest share in the structure of transportation is occupied by domestic – 5.47 million tons (+3.6% m/m).

In January 2023, export shipments increased by 21.1% compared to the previous month – up to 5.18 million tons, import – by 3.5% m/m, up to 558 thousand tons, and transit ones – twice as much, up to 87.6 thousand tons.

Since the beginning of the war, Ukrainian steelmakers have experienced difficulties in shipping finished products for export. The blockade of the ports forced to reorient the shipment of products exclusively to the railway. Because of this, the company’s logistics costs have increased several times and the delivery time has increased significantly. Border crossings could not cope with such an influx of railcars, due to which railcars with products stood in queues for weeks. After the opening of the grain corridor, the situation has improved, but remains tense.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2022, Ukrzaliznytsia reduced transportation of iron and manganese ores by 59.2% compared to 2021 – to 41.7 million tons. The volume of ferrous metals transportation over the past year decreased by 57.8% y/y – to 9.2 million tons. In total, UZ transported 150.6 million tons of cargo per hour, which is 52.1% less than in 2021.