Ukrainian Railways expects to post net profit of 7 bln hryvni in 2023

MOSCOW. Dec 13 (Interfax) - JSC Ukrainian Railways expects to report net profit of 7 billion hryvni in 2023 after posting a net loss of 9.6 billion hryvni in 2022, Ukrainian media said, citing the company's acting CEO Yevgeny Lyashchenko as saying at the Infrastructure Ministry's meeting with diplomatic mission heads and public figures in Kiev on Tuesday.

Ukrainian Railways expects to receive record high revenue over the past five years in 2023 - 99.6 billion hryvni, 82.1 billion hryvni comes from freight transport, 8.4 billion hryvni from passenger transport, and 9.1 billion hryvni from other services, Lyashchenko said.

Ukrainian Railways' revenue dropped to 75.7 billion hryvni in 2022 from 86 billion hryvni in 2021 and 90.4 billion hryvni in 2019, the data presented by Lyashchenko showed.

Specifically, freight transport revenue fell to 63 billion hryvni in 2022 from 72.3 billion hryvni the year before, passenger transport revenue declined to 5.9 billion hryvni from 6.2 billion hryvni, and revenue from other services dropped to 6.8 billion hryvni from 7.5 billion hryvni.

Ukrainian Railways returned to profit in 2023 as a result of measures to optimize its operations, and 70% of operational procurement by cost is now taking place under direct contracts with producers, he said.

In particular, Ukrainian Railways has saved more than 1 billion hryvni on diesel fuel purchases since March 2023 after adjusting fuel requirements and procurement rules, Lyashchenko said.