Accumulation of wagons observed at three western railway crossings due to intensification of ore transportation

KYIV. Feb 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The volume of ore cargo transportation in the direction of the western border crossings continues to grow due to the improvement in the price situation in the EU market, which led to a slight accumulation of wagons in the direction of the Izov-Hrubieszów (Poland), Uzhgorod-Matovce (Slovakia), Batevo-Eperjeske (Hungary) and an increase in the total queue by 1,200 cars.

“The total accumulation of wagons in the direction of 13 border crossings is 16,185 wagons, of which 3,647 wagons are with grain. Over the past week, the accumulation has increased by 1,200 cars, but in grain cars, on the contrary, it has decreased by 204 cars,” Valeriy Tkachev, deputy director of the department of commercial work at Ukrzaliznytsia, said at a meeting with market participants on Thursday.

According to him, on average, Ukrzaliznytsia transfers 1,956 wagons to Western partners per day, including 641 wagons with grain.

“Thus, the total waiting time in the queue reaches an average of only 8 days, and wagons with grain – no more than 6 days,” Tkachev said.

The largest accumulation of wagons is recorded in the direction of the Izov-Hrubieszów crossing (Poland) – 3,716 wagons, of which 507 are with grain, with 490 wagons passing through the crossing daily.

“The load at this crossing has increased due to the growth in shipments of ore cargo. Finally, we have sent ore to the Izov-Hrubieszów crossing, and this will significantly increase our daily transfer of goods for export, because this crossing was specially built for the transport of ore cargo and is the most powerful in terms of productivity at the border crossing. Recently, it has been working at half its capacity due to a drop in ore transportation,” Tkachev said.

Also, due to the increase in ore transportation, the accumulation of wagons at the Uzhgorod-Matovce crossing (Slovakia) has increased by 400 wagons and at Batevo-Eperjeske (Hungary) by 256 wagons. “At Batevo-Eperjeske, the situation is the most difficult: the time in anticipation of crossing the border is now up to 17 days,” the company’s representative stated.

He appealed to the shippers, if possible, to temporarily limit the loading of grain in the direction of this crossing in order to enable foreign carriers to accept previously agreed cargo and not increase the accumulation of wagons on the Ukrzaliznytsia network.