Ukrainian Railways starts to limit loading of cargo bound for Izmail port
MOSCOW. Aug 10 (Interfax) - JSC Ukrainian Railways on August 7 limited the procedures for approving plans to load new railcars for recipients at the Izmail commercial seaport, where railcars have to wait for more than 30 days to be unloaded, Ukrainian media said, citing remarks made by deputy director of the company's commercial department Valery Tkachev at a meeting of Ukrainian Railways' Export Office.
The restrictions apply to all stations - both internal and export ones - that are located at the Izmail port, Tkachev said.
As many as 7,788 railcars were moving toward the Izmail port on Monday, and their number declined to 7,671 on Wednesday.
"A total of 7,671 railcars are heading to the Izmail port today. Of this number, 2,490 are carrying grain. However, the port's average unloading rate is around 280-300 railcars per day. The situation is very difficult [...] We are not approving plans for loading port-bound railcars intended for recipients that have lines of more than 30 days. We see how many railcars move to each cargo recipient, how many cars this cargo recipient unloads per day. If the waiting time for unloading is more than 30 days, we will not approve these loading plans," Tkachev said.
Data from Ukrainian Railways shows that the cargo recipients (port railway stations) at the Izmail port that had the longest lines as of August 7, 2023 were MBPP Efest-55 days, Arkada LLC -37 days, Berega LLC- 58 days, Valeto LLC- 75 days, DLK LLC-30 days, Zekter LLC-42 days, Odemara-Inter LLC-107 days, Portinvest Logistics LLC-105 days, Priortet-B LLC-115 days, Riva Holding LLC-74 days, Slavutich Ruda LLC-38 days, Soft Marine LLC-73 days, and Favorit Izmail Bud LLC-38 days. The average waiting time at port railway stations on Monday was 28 days.
Tkachev asked cargo recipients at the Izmail port to increase the pace of cargo acceptance as much as possible, speeding up the unloading process and averting lines of over 30 days. He also asked cargo owners to use Ukrainian Railways' publicly available data on congestion and to choose cargo shipping companies that have the shortest lines.
Freight train services to the Reni port on the Dabune, which were suspended for 24 hours after railcars derailed in Moldova, have been restored, Tkachev said.
As reported earlier, data on the MarineTraffic application, which displays vessel positions around the world, showed that the number of vessels at the Izmail port in the Odessa region declined by 2.5-fold to 48 on Monday versus 120 last week.