Ukrainian Railways increased intermodal transportation by 34% y/y in 2023

In 2023, Ukrainian Railways (UZ) increased intermodal transportation by 34% compared to 2022 – up to 201.3 TEU. This was discussed during a meeting of Ukrainian Railways on container transportation, Rail.insider reports.

«In the period from 2018 to 2021, there was a steady increase in container traffic. Thus, in 2018, the increase was 22%, in 2019 – 20%, in 2020 – 11%, and in 2021 – 14%. After Russia’s full-scale invasion, the dynamics deteriorated in 2022. The decline reached 46%: while in 2021 the number of transported containers amounted to 279.8 thousand TEU, in 2022 it was 150.1 thousand,» the deputy director of UZ commercial work department Valeriy Tkachev said.

At the same time, in 2023, there was a significant increase to 201.3 TWh. 62% of this volume was exported. The share of imports and domestic transportation was 19%.

Among the nomenclatures most often transported in containers:

• grain (49%);
• ferrous metals (17%);
• oil (10%);
• cake (14%).

«These results seem good amid the previous year’s decline, but they still remain low. After all, Ukrzaliznytsia’s strategy for 2031 is to increase container transportation to 1 million TEUs per year,» Valeriy Tkachev summarized.

As GMK Center reported earlier, Ukrainian Railways in November 2023 increased transportation of iron ore in the export direction by 20.4% compared to the previous month – up to 2.32 million tons. Compared to November 2022, the indicator increased 3 times. The volume of export shipments of ferrous metals for November 2023 increased by 23.1% m/m and 76.3% y/y – up to 407 thousand tons.