The new management of the Ukrainian Railways joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) does not intend to deviate from the course outlined by the company’s head Volodymyr Zhmak, which provides for development of the company’s container terminals based on public-private partnership. In particular, Ukrzaliznytsia intends to concession all its terminals in which businesses are interested.
Ukrzaliznytsia’s Commercial and Logistics Director Irakli Ezugbaya stated this in an interview with the CFTS portal. According to him, the relevant preparatory work is already underway in cooperation with the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
"We are preparing container terminals for concession together with the IFC. We want to transfer the management of all the terminals that will be in demand on the market because we believe that Ukrzaliznytsia can recreate the skills for managing container terminals better than the market can do in the near future," said Ezugbaya. "We believe that major international names are interested in these terminals and that they will help us containerize cargo much better than Ukrzaliznytsia is currently doing. For its part, Ukrzaliznytsia will provide container flatcars and block-train shipments for organizing the transportation of these containers."
As reported earlier, Ukrzaliznytsia’s Board Chairman Zhmak proposed development of Ukrzaliznytsia’s container terminals based on the public-private partnership model when he was a candidate for the position of board chairman of the railway company. Ukrzaliznytsia’s acting board member Oleksandr Pertsovskyi confirmed these intentions in late October. "Concession of container terminals, we see an opportunity here to attract cargo and develop container terminals thanks to PPP. We want to transport not only crushed stone and ore but also compete for more marginal goods that can be transported in containers in terms of quality and speed," he said.
