Ukrainian Railways increased container transportation by 28% y/y in 2024

Transportation volumes are close to pre-war levels

In 2024, Ukrainian Railways JSC (UZ) increased intermodal container transportation within Ukraine by 28% compared to 2023, up to 258.18 TEU, the railway operator’s press service told GMK Center.

The volume of cargo transportation in containers has approached pre-war levels, although the growth rate in 2024 slowed slightly compared to 2023. In particular, in 2021, this volume amounted to 279.79 thousand TEU (+14% y/y), in 2022 – 150.06 thousand (-46% y/y), in 2023 – 201.26 thousand (+34% y/y).

Last year, imported cargo transportation amounted to 55.59 thousand TEU, exports – 162.72 thousand, domestic traffic – 38.68 thousand, and transit – 1.19 thousand.

The main nomenclature of cargo in 2024 is distributed as follows:

• grain cargo – 46% – 101.8 thousand TEU (+17.9% y/y);
• ferrous metals – 20% – 43.04 thousand TEU (+42.3%);
• meal – 9% – 19.29 thousand (-20.1%);
• oil – 8% to 16.63 thousand (-8.7%);

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2024, Ukrainian Railways increased iron ore exports by 1.7 times compared to 2023, to 33 million tons. Export transportation of ferrous metals increased by 13.7% y/y – to 5.17 million tons.

In 2024, the total volume of cargo transported by Ukrainian Railways increased by 17.9% compared to 2023, to 174.9 million tons. In particular, export traffic amounted to 84.67 million tons (+51.2% y/y), and import traffic – 9.63 million tons (+40.9%). Domestic transportation decreased by 5.5% y/y – to 80.2 million tons.