Railway transportation of iron ore to Poland continued to grow in March – Ukrainian Railways

Rail transportation of iron ore to Poland continued to grow in March 2024. During the month, the daily transfer of iron ore railcars through the Izov-Grubieszów crossing increased by 36% or 53 units – to 200 units. This was stated by Valeriy Tkachev, Deputy Director of the Commercial Department of JSC Ukrainian Railways (UZ), Rail.Insider reports.

In March, a total of 1.03 million tons of cargo, or 17.43 thousand tons of railcars, were transferred through the Izov-Grubieszów border crossing. The average daily rate of railcar transfer in both directions was 562.3 units per day.

«In January, the total railcar transfer rate was 498.4 railcars, while in February it was 553.3 (55 cars more). In March, we have an additional nine railcars per day and are already transferring 562.3 railcars per day,» said Valeriy Tkachev.

In terms of cargo nomenclatures, the largest growth is observed in the transportation of iron ore. Other nomenclatures showed a decline. The biggest drop was recorded in coal transportation – by 46 units per day.

The accumulation at the Izov-Grubieszów junction is 4,001 railcars. A difficult situation is observed with the accumulation of food cargo.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in February 2024, Ukrainian Railways increased the transportation of iron and manganese ore by 11.3% compared to the previous month, to 3.33 million tons. The figure increased by 2.5 times compared to February 2023. The company transported 2.067 million tons of raw materials to seaports, or 62.1% of iron ore exports. The company transported 1.262 million tons (37.9%) via land crossings.

In 2023, Ukrainian Railways transported 148.4 million tons of cargo, down 1.5%, or 2.2 million tons, compared to 2022. Transportation of iron ore decreased by 13.2% y/y – to 27.5 million tons, ferrous metals – by 10.6% y/y, to 8.2 million tons, and grain – by 5.9% y/y, to 30.6 million tons.