Ukraine seeing roaring demand for vegetable oils transport cisterns - Ukrainian Railways

MOSCOW. Nov 8 (Interfax) - Changes in the logistics procedure for exporting vegetable oils have caused an upsurge in demand in Ukraine for cisterns that are used to transport these goods, Ukrainian media said, citing Valery Tkachev, deputy director of the Ukrainian Railways commercial operations department, as telling at a meeting with exporters on Tuesday.

"The deficit [of oils transport cisterns] has occurred because of changes in the logistics of oils export. They used to be delivered to port terminals en masse and in large quantities. Large reservoirs were accumulated and were then returned to oil extraction plants," Tkachev said.

However, today market operators and hauliers prefer not to transport produce to ports, he said. Such companies had to reorient their freight flows, causing cisterns to pile up near the Izov border crossing, where there is currently a line of 500 rail cars, and at the Batiyevo border crossing, where 100 such cisterns are now present.

"All this causes privately owned cisterns to idle," Tkachev said.

Companies that specialize in transporting vegetable oils have not leased cisterns for the past five months, he said. However, Ukrainian Railways has already prepared such rail cars in light of the ongoing situation and the rise in seasonal demand.

"We have several thousand cisterns. We washing them, treating them with steam and leasing them out for the transportation of edible oils. We have already made 150 [cisterns] ready and are preparing 40 more. We will be ready to offer approximately 190-200 cisterns for vegetable oils in order to satisfy this temporary demand," Tkachev said.