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In fact, railway transportation of the main items of Ukrainian exports - the products of the agricultural and the mining and metallurgical industry - is carried out at the level of 50-53% of the potential. There are many reasons for this - the need to expand and reconstruct existing checkpoints, create new ones, digitize processes as well as work with foreign partners (Poland, Moldova, Romania, etc.).
This was emphasized by the participants of the meeting of the Anti-Crisis Office for Business and Industry Assistance operating under ULIE. The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Strategic Industries, Ukrainian Railway Company Ukrzaliznytsia, Nibulon, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine, etc.
A lot of concern among manufacturers and exporters was caused by a sharp increase in the tariff for transportation by Ukrzaliznytsia - as much as 70%. Business requires compensatory measures because logistics costs are growing at a catastrophic rate. For example, in the mining and metallurgical complex, they grew from 40% to 3.5 times compared to pre-war levels. This was reported by Stanislav Zinchenko, director of the GMK-Center.
Ore dressing plants have accumulated products in the amount of two months and it is extremely difficult to ship them to customers abroad on time. In general, the drop-in production in this area reached 53%. If this issue is not resolved at the state level with the involvement of all resources - railways, Danube ports, road transport - then the domestic mining and metallurgy will lose the European market and it will be replaced there by Brazil, South Africa, etc. which are increasing steel production.
"In any case, be the ports unlocked now or not but the expansion of railway, road crossing points, and river ports will be relevant steps and a successful investment. This is the diversification of logistics," the expert noted.
"We appeal to the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the government as a whole - together with industrialists, think about ways to reduce the cost of freight transportation. First of all, this concerns speeding up border crossing - creation of an electronic queue, improvement of auctions for the use of wagons, etc., - the president of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Anatolii Kinakh stressed.
Paradoxically, Ukraine is ready to increase the volume of railway transportation, but the problem is that the Western infrastructure is not ready to serve such volumes.
"Baltic ports, even Romania's, are small and it is difficult for them to serve Ukrainian exports in sufficient volumes on time. The same applies to railways, which in the EU are focused mainly on passenger transportation. At present, more or less in this regard, such barriers are solved by the Poles so it is necessary to intensify diplomatic and professional work with other Western neighbors," stressed the members of the Anti-Crisis Office.
Currently Ukrzaliznytsia has representative offices in a number of European states neighboring Ukraine. It tries to solve problems on the ground. In Moldova, for example, it helps with the repair of tracks in the border zone in order to increase Ukrainian transit. Ukrainian specialists helped the Poles with the digitization of processes at crossing points.
The initiative to build large transshipment terminals in the border areas together with the Europeans and the USA is being considered. Ukraine would deliver products there and the Europeans would continue their logistics to the ports or rail/road transport at their own pace.
There are also very innovative proposals - for example, to use one of the pipelines for the transportation of oil.
Serhiy Tikhonov, Deputy Minister for Strategic Industries, noted that the opening of 2 checkpoints in Transcarpathian area in the direction of Hungary and Romania will allow doubling the export figures. According to him, European partners understand this, currently Romania has reserved 12 hectares of land for these purposes, etc.
Experts have also raised the issue of the Danube port infrastructure. According to Anatolii Kinakh, it shows excellent indicators in view of the existing opportunities. But still, this direction should be developed, in particular, adopted by the deepening of the river bed. According to the proposal of the mining and metallurgy center, all port fees should be directed specifically to the modernization of the infrastructure.
The representative of Ukrzaliznytsia Tymofiy Murakhovskyi said that at the end of July an electronic queue at checkpoints will be introduced so it will be easier for businesses to make decisions by tracking where there are problem areas and the low speed of progress of queues.
Among other proposals of experts of the Anti-Crisis Office: launch of phytosanitary control not at the border, but 20 days after crossing it (this way there will be no jams from rolling stock at the crossing points); joint customs inspection; development of the Eurotrack on the Ukrainian side of the border, so that transshipment is carried out in Ukrainian side (it will be faster), etc.
All offers will be finalized in the coming days. The agreed decision of the Anti-Crisis Office will be forwarded to the government, Ukrzaliznytsia, scientific institutions, and sectoral business associations. The work will be continued also within the framework of working sessions of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Agrarian Policy, etc.