Ukrainian Railways' average daily grain loading reaches 99,500 tonnes

MOSCOW. Jan 12 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Railways loaded 99,500 tonnes of grain on average per day on January 1-10, 2024, which is 37.3% more than in December, deputy director of the company's commercial operations department Valery Tkachev said at a meeting with agrarian market participants on Thursday.

"I hope that we will stick to such figures. And this will allow us to transport more than 3 million tonnes of grain a month," Ukrainian media quoted Tkachev as saying.

Ukrainian Railways loaded 24,000 tonnes of grain on January 1, and 63,000 tonnes on January 2, but this figure jumped to 105,000-123,000 tonnes a day from January 3, he said.

The share of grain in the company's cargo loading operations has been growing and has already reached 26%, Tkachev said.

Ukrainian Railways transported 991,300 tonnes of grain exports on January 1-10, including 196,900 tonnes to Ukraine's western border and 794,400 tonnes to the Greater Odessa ports, he said.

The largest amounts of grain were delivered to the Chernomorsk port (257,200 tonnes), the Odessa port (249,100 tonnes) and the Yuzhny port's terminal (93,400 tonnes), Tkachev said.

As for Ukraine's western border, the largest amount of grain exports was accepted by the Yagodin border crossing (41,800 tonnes), he said. It is followed by Vadul Siret (36,200 tonnes) and Chop (33,100 tonnes).

Poland accepts an average of 85.6 railcars per day, among them 51 railcars arriving via the Yagodin-Dorobusk border crossing, 23.7 via Mostiska-Medyka, and 11 via Izov-Hrubeszow, he said.

"The average daily transfer of railcars on the Polish border increased by ten railcars per day, or by more than 13%, over the past week," Tkachev said.

Romania accepts 100 railcars with grain per day, he said. However, this figure dropped by 14 railcars per day, or 12.3% in the past week. The Vadul Siret border crossing handles 66.2 railcars per day, Dyakovo 2.5, and Reni 31.

Though Hungary usually accepts an average of 45.5 railcars per day, this figure rose by 4.5 railcars per day, or 11% in the past week, he said. Meanwhile, the average daily number of railcars accepted by Slovakia - 59.3 - grew by 5.6 railcars per day, or 10.5%, in the past week.

The average number of railcars with oilseed residues and grain transferred at all border crossings per day stands at 385, Tkachev said. This figure increased by 15 railcars per day, or 4%, in the past week.