Ukrzaliznytsia reduces freight transportation by 11.8% in H 1 2025 - CEO
The volume of export transportation of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia in January-June 2025 decreased by 13.5% - to 38.7 million tonnes, domestic transportation - by 11.7%, to 35.5 million tonnes, while the volume of import transportation increased by 5.4% - to 5.3 million tonnes, the company's CEO Oleksandr Pertsovsky reported on Facebook.
"In the first half of 2025, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 79.6 million tonnes of cargo - this is 11.8% less than last year's figure. With such dynamics throughout the year, the annual figure will be approximately 50-52% of the volume of cargo in the period before the full-scale invasion (2021). At our time, the lowest load in the history of the railway has fallen: this is extremely painful for the company to be able to function, because it was freight work that has always "fed" the railway," he noted.
Pertsovsky specified that the largest drop occurred in the transportation of hard coal - by 27.5% due to the loss of mines and the deterioration of the security situation, grain and milling products - by 32.5%.
"Agriculturalists indicate a late start to the season, so we expect some leveling later in the year (more went in July). Also, fair rules of the game are important: we work closely with the State Service of Ukraine for Transport Safety on enhanced checks of weight standards so that grain is not transported to ports in violation of weight standards, "killing the roads" by trucks," the CEO noted.
According to him, the company managed to work with clients in the construction industry, and against the background of some revival of the construction market, construction materials transportation grew by 4% and cement by 10%. However, as Pertsovsky emphasized, the current ultra-low tariffs for cargoes of this group do not add to the company's profit.
The CEO explained the increase in imports by the work of colleagues from the commercial team, who were able to convince important players in the fuel market to try railway services and use our logistics with the subsidiary UZ Cargo Poland.
As for transit, in the conditions of the war with Russia, it is almost absent, although the company is taking the first steps towards building multimodal routes, Pertsovsky noted. He recalled that in the first half of this year, the first transit container ferries were sent to Georgia, which opens up opportunities for transit to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and in the future, an increase in transit volumes from China through the "Middle Corridor".