Ukrzaliznytsia transported 1.32 million tons of iron ore for export in February 2023

In February 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) transported 1.317 million tons of iron and manganese ores for export. Rail.Insider informs about it with the reference to the data of the Export Office at UZ.

The share of iron ore in the structure of export transportation of the railway operator for the month amounted to 26%. Transportation of ferrous metals abroad in February 2023 amounted to 321 thousand tons, or 6% of the total export traffic for this period.

Export shipments of grain in February amounted to 2.894 million tons, or 57% of the total volume of such shipments. Thus, grain cargoes take the first place in terms of transportation volume in February. Iron ore is in the second place, and ferrous metals are in the place.

In February 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 11.22 million tons of cargo, which is 49.7% less compared to the same month in 2022. During this period, 5.1 million tons of cargo were shipped for export (-43.2% y/y).

In January-February 2023, the railway operator reduced the transportation of goods by 53.6% compared to the same period last year – to 22.5 million tons. 10.24 million tons of goods were shipped for export during this period, which is by 47.1% less y/y.

“Grain transportation is negatively affected by the insufficient work of the grain corridor. During January, the number of vessel departures from Ukrainian ports was fixed at the level of 2-3 vessels per day, if necessary, at least 8-10 vessels. This is primarily due to the artificial blocking of the grain corridor by Russian inspectors. At the same time, the transportation of iron ore in January-February increased significantly compared to November-December 2022 – by 904 thousand tons. This was achieved thanks to the intensification of the work of European steel plants,” the UZ notes.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in January 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia increased railway transportation of iron and manganese ores by 46% compared to the same month of 2022 – up to 1.7 million tons. In general, in the first month of 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 11.293 million tons of cargo, which is 11% more than in December 2022.