A win-win scenario: Ukrainian Railways’ scrap sales surged 2.2-fold in Q1

As of early 2026, Ukrainian Railways’ (UZ) auctions for the sale of scrap on the domestic market have finally begun. Data from the Prozorro.Sales platform shows that in the first quarter, the state-owned company reached a record sales figure of 21,600 tons per month, whereas from May to December 2025, it was only 9,950 tons per month. In other words, the growth rate increased by a factor of 2.17!

The explanation for this trend is simple: Ukrainian Railways found common ground with its main scrap consumers — Ukrainian steel enterprises — reaching a win-win solution regarding the wording in standard scrap purchase and sale contracts and raw material pricing.

And although the process of aligning positions and finding compromises continued into January–February of this year, this did not prevent Ukrainian Railways from selling 64,700 tons (!) of scrap metal out of a total volume of 92,600 tons listed on Prozorro.Sales during this period. The auction success rate was 70% (!)—a historic record for Ukrzaliznytsia since it fully transitioned to selling raw materials through Prozorro.

Moreover, considering that Ukrzaliznytsia sold 79,600 tons in all of 2025, the following emerges: the state-owned company sold volumes of raw materials in the first quarter of 2026 alone that are comparable to the volumes for the entire previous year. This gives reason to predict that this year, for the first time in its history, Ukrainian Railways may meet its scrap metal sales target and, at the same time, help reduce the scrap metal shortage in Ukraine.