Ukrainian Railways calling for boosting agricultural product shipping via Moldova

MOSCOW. July 20 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Railways, or Ukrzaliznytsia, urges the shipping companies to increase the volume of agricultural products to be shipped to the Romanian ports Reni, Giurgiulesti and Galati across Moldova, Ukrainian media quoted Deputy Director of the Ukrzaliznytsia Commercial Operation Department Valery Tkachev as saying at a meeting with the grain carriers on Thursday.

"The discounts, which the Moldovan railroad has agreed to provide, became effective on July 15. They will be calculated in 15 days. The required monthly volume will be divided in half, and this will be the standard for July. And from August, the volumes will be calculated in a month," he said. At the same time, the volumes of all forwarding companies, which provide transportation across Moldova, will be taken into account.

Ukrzaliznytsia also intends to join the carriers and plans next week to offer businesses an agreement with its branch, Center of Transport Logistics, to provide freight forwarding services across Moldova, Tkachev said.

"If the minimum volume is fulfilled at the end of the month, all forwarding companies will be given a discount. And this will be calculated with regard to the Moldovan railroad by the sixth day of the next month. Accordingly, you [shipping companies] should turn to your freight forwarder for him to return this discount on Thursday and lower the transportation fee by this amount," he said.

For businesses to monitor the future availability of this discount or its absence, as Tkachev said, Ukrzaliznytsia will inform agricultural market participants every ten days how much was transited through Moldova in order to find out the pace of transportation required to obtain transit discounts.

At the same time, he recommended that the shippers should monitor the situation in the ports, operating terminals and their capacity.

"The major risk of failing to fulfill the volumes is not that the railroad will be unable to transport 80 to 120 carriages loaded with grain daily. The problem could arise with the fact that the port terminals in Reni, Giurgiulesti or Galati will be unable to handle this volume every day," Ukrainian Railways said.

The deputy director of the Ukrzaliznytsia department added that the company's commission planned to inspect the available capacities in the ports shortly and agree on the coordination of operations with the terminals.

For their part, the shippers asked Ukrzaliznytsia to host a meeting with representatives of the ports and provide businesses with information on the existing infrastructure facilities and those under construction, as well as the condition of access roads to them.

Tkachev promised to meet this request and chair a trilateral meeting of Ukrzaliznytsia, port representatives and businesses in the next few weeks.