Container transportation is unprofitable for Ukrzaliznytsia

Transportation of containers causes losses to Ukrzaliznytsia at the level of 40-60%. This was announced during the Rail Expo 2021 conference by Valery Tkachev, Deputy Director of the Commercial Department of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC.

“Container transportation is unprofitable for Ukrzaliznytsia. However, we understand that this is due to their small volumes, but the future belongs to the transportation of containers,” he said.

Valeriy Tkachev noted that according to the results of 9 months of 2021, the railways of Ukraine transported 334 thousand TEU (containers in twenty-foot equivalent), which is 7% more than the same period last year, reports Railway Supply magazine

The growth was provided by transit and import cargoes. In particular, 152 trains passed through Ukraine from China to the EU. At the same time, containerization of goods by rail in Ukraine remains at a very low level – just over 2%.

Kazakhstan expects that the volume of container transit traffic will grow to one million TEU by the end of the year

The appearance of direct container trains from China is positive. As noted by the representative of UZ, this is the merit of several private companies.

He also noted that transportation by the Viking train for 9 months amounted to 7.6 thousand containers, which is 14% less than last year.

As previously reported, on September 28, the first in the history of independent Ukraine, a direct container train with export cargo departed from the Kyiv-Liski station on the route Kyiv (Ukraine) -Xian (People’s Republic of China).

Railway news you may have missed:

Ukrzaliznytsia announced a “Big Sale”