Ukrainian Railways transferred over 6.5 million tons of ore to Slovakia in January-September

In 9 months of 2024, Ukrainian Railways (UZ) transferred more than 6.5 million tons of iron ore to Slovakia, which is 16% less compared to the same period last year. This is reported by Rail.Insider with reference to a meeting of UZ representatives with Slovak carriers.

In general, in January-September, almost 8.3 million tons of cargo were transferred through the Ukrainian-Slovak rail border crossings, which is 14% less compared to January-September 2023.

Over the past nine months, 4.51 million tons of cargo was transferred through the Chop-Cierna crossing over Tisou (-15% y/y), and 3.78 million tons of cargo (-13% y/y) through the Uzhhorod-Matevtsi crossing.

The top five cargoes with the largest volume of transportation, except for iron ore, were

• grain and milling products — 662 thousand tons (–33% y/y),
• hard coal — 259,000 tons (+41%)
• construction materials — 209,000 tons (+19%)
• petroleum products — 137,000 tons (+5%).

As GMK Center reported earlier, in September 2024, Ukrainian Railways increased iron ore exports by 1.7% compared to the previous month to 2.361 million tons. The figure is up 62.5% compared to September 2023. In January-September, export transportation of iron ore amounted to 25.19 million tons (+2 times y/y).

In 2023, UZ reduced the transportation of iron ore by 13.2% y/y – to 27.5 million tons, and ferrous metals by 10.6% y/y – to 8.2 million tons. At the same time, grain transportation increased by 5.9% y/y – to 30.6 million tons. In total, 148.4 million tons of cargo were transported in the period under review, down 1.5%, or 2.2 million tons, compared to 2022.