Ukrainian Railways transported more than 1 million tons of iron ore to Slovakia in March

In March 2023, Ukrainian Railways transferred more than 1 million tons of iron ore through border crossings with Slovakia. This was discussed during a meeting of UZ representatives with Slovak carriers, writes Rail.insider.

In general, during March 2023, Ukrainian Railways transported 1.74 million tons of iron and manganese ores for export, increasing the volume of transportation by 32.2% compared to February.

As the representative of ZSSK Cargo Joseph Wirba noted during the meeting, the volume of Ukrainian iron ore shipments to Slovakia in March is a very good result of joint work. Previously, it was not possible to achieve this, he added.

The Slovak representative also noted that in March 2023, 570,000 tons of iron ore were received by the Slovakian US Steel Kosice.

In addition, more than 490,000 tons of iron ore were intended for Czech steel mills and the Austrian recipient Voestalpine. More than 65%, or almost 320,000 tons, were sent to the Czech station Trinec, where one of the leading Czech steel mills is located – Třinecké železárny.

“This is a record set by colleagues. I don’t remember that this recipient received more than 300,000 tons of iron ore in recent months,” Wirba emphasized.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in March 2023, UZ transported 12.2 million tons of cargo, which is 47% more compared to the same month of 2022, and 8.7% more compared to the previous month. During this period, 5.3 million tons of goods were shipped for export (+73.4% y/y and +4% m/m).

For January-March 2023, the railway operator reduced freight transportation by 38% y/y – to 34.7 million tons. 15.54 million tons of goods were shipped for export during this period.