Iron & steel cargoes occupied more than 45% of export transportation by rail in 2024

Cargoes of iron and steel complex occupy more than 45% in the total volume of export freight transportation of Ukrainian Railways. Thus, iron and manganese ore (33 million tons or 39%) and ferrous metals (5.2 million tons or 6%) occupied the second and third positions in the structure of railway exports by the end of 2024. In total, the volume of Ukrainian Railways’ export transportation last year grew by 51.2% y/y – to 84.7 million tons.

The growth dynamics of MMC’s export cargo transportation by rail last year was as follows:

• iron and manganese ore – 1.7 times, to 33 million tons. Last year, ore export shipments by rail in the direction of ports amounted to 18.3 million tons (3.7 times more than in 2023), in the direction of land border crossings – 14.7 million tons (-0.4% y/y).
• ferrous metals – by 13.7%, to 5.2 mln tons. Export rail transportation of ferrous metals to ports in 2024 grew 2.1 times to 3.5 mln tons, while in the direction of land border crossings fell by 41.9% y/y – to 1.6 mln tons.

The above figures also include export volumes of iron and steel products that go through the ports. At the end of last year, iron and steel cargoes accounted for 24.7% of the total port transshipment of export cargoes, including 20.7% of ore and 4% of ferrous metals. Taking into account the volumes of iron and steel export products, which Ukrainian Railways transported in the direction of ports, port exports of ore at the end of 2024 can be tentatively estimated at 18.3 million tons, ferrous metals – at 3.5 million tons. In total, in 2024, export transshipment of cargo in Ukrainian ports amounted to 88.1 million tons.

Ferrous metals occupy 20% of the structure of container rail transportation. In 2023, transportation of steel products by this method increased by 42.3% y/y – to 43 thousand TEU. In 2023 this indicator decreased by 8.6% y/y – to 30.3 thousand TEU. Iron and steel companies are the largest clients of Ukrainian Railways by volume of container transportation after agrarians.

At the same time, export railroad transportation in 2025 may decrease if freight tariffs are raised, as Ukrainian Railways wants to index them by 37%. Such a decision will lead to an additional UAH 8-10 bln increase in logistics costs for iron and steel enterprises alone.