The Ukrainian Railways joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) has forecast that its grain transport volume will amount to approximately 28.5 million tons of grain in 2022.
Valerii Tkachov, the deputy director of Ukrzaliznytsia’s department of commercial operations, made this forecast during a meeting with grain-market participants on Thursday, 29 December, the CFTS portal reports, citing the Rail Insider publication.
"We have transported almost 25,650,000 tons in 11 months, which is only 4 million less than we transported last year. I expect we will transport approximately 28.5 million tons of grain … by the end of 2022. Speaking of transportation of export freight, I hope it will be approximately 22.5 million tons," Tkachov said.
According to him, the volume of transportation of grain is higher than the volume of transportation of all other types of cargo.
"Grain has become the most important cargo for the railway this year: almost 30% of the total cargo loaded and 50% of the export cargo transported," the Ukrzaliznytsia representative said.
Tkachov recalled that the volume of transportation of freight through Ukraine’s western border crossings increased 30 times after the launch of Russia’s large-scale military aggression against Ukraine. "We already transport over 1 million tons of grain to western border crossings every month," he said.
According to the information provided during the meeting, 2.3 million tons of grain had been loaded in the Ukrzaliznytsia rail network as of 28 December.
