The freight rates of the State Railway Administration (Ukrzaliznytsia) may be raised before the end of 2015. Ukrzaliznytsia’s acting head Oleksandr Zavhorodnyi announced this to reporters during a meeting with shippers at the European Business Association, the CFTS portal’s correspondent reports.
He did not specify the margin by which the freight rates will be raised, but he did say that the cost of transporting coal would increase by 7 percent and building materials by up to 20 percent.
As reported, Zavhorodnyi spoke of the need to raise freight rates almost immediately after his appointment as the acting head of Ukrzaliznytsia in July. Previous acting head of Ukrzaliznytsia Maksym Blank and Infrastructure Minister Andrii Pyvovarskyi also called for freight rates to be raised.
Freight rates were last raised in Ukraine in January 2015, when they were raised by 30% (excluding the rates for coal freight, which were raised gradually by 28% over a period of three months).
Ukrzaliznytsia again initiated a 25% increase in freight rates in February. Blank explained that this was necessary because of the devaluation of the hryvnia and the rise of fuel prices. The Ministry of Infrastructure expected the latest increase of freight rates to take place by May, but the State Regulatory Service refused to approve the relevant directive from the Ministry of Infrastructure.
