Ukrainian railway operator Lemtrans reduces freight transport 10% in 2023

MOSCOW. Feb 9 (Interfax) - Ukraine's largest private operator of railway rolling stock, Lemtrans, reduced rail shipments of several types of goods 9.6% in 2023 compared to 2022 to 17 million tonnes, Ukrainian media said, citing a company statement.

Most of the cargo transported was coal, accounting for 79% of the volume (13.5 million tonnes). The company primarily transported coal from mines to power plants. Volumes in 2023 are consistent with those of the previous year.

Transportation of construction materials increased 30% to 2.9 million tonnes. The volume of iron ore raw materials decreased most significantly, 75.6%, to 400,000 tonnes, while 200,000 tonnes of other types of cargo were transported.

Last year, the Lemtrans Group invested more than 160 million hryvnia in infrastructure and logistics projects, mainly in the development of its container business. This included the continued development of a container terminal in the Lvov region. In addition, the company decided to begin design work on two new container terminals in Ukraine.

Lemtrans' investment program last year was also aimed at further increasing the efficiency and productivity of its railcar repair facilities. The volume of planned and ongoing repairs of freight cars at the repair site reached 5,200 units.

Lemtrans is part of Rinat Akhmetov's System Capital Management (SCM) holding. It provides a full range of services for the transportation of goods by rail. Its main activities are transport and forwarding services for domestic and export-import cargo transportation, as well as repairing rolling stock.

The official exchange rate as of February 9 is 37.57 UAH/$1.