Ukrzaliznytsia declares that it cannot significantly influence the price of grain transportation

The dispute over whether the state-owned Ukrzaliznytsia should regulate the cost of grain transportation is becoming more and more intense, especially now, when logistics costs make up half of the cost of the grain itself. For some reason, the cost of grain delivery to ports in Ukraine by rail transport is sometimes twice as high as by cars that use imported fuel.

Valeriy Tkachev, director of the commercial work department of UZ, said that currently UZ occupies only a quarter of the grain transportation market by rail, so it cannot reduce the cost of transportation by offering wagons at below-market prices and reducing the rental cost.

In October, harvesting of the late grain group began, which strengthened the demand for wagons and, accordingly, the price. In September, Ukrzaliznytsia tried to reduce the price of wagons on the market, but realized that the main task of the company is to ensure transportation and efficient use of assets provided by the state, and not to support someone by reducing revenues from the wagon component. "We must ensure the effective use of the 7,000 grain trucks provided by the state, and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy must support agricultural producers," the UZ said.

Currently, UZ transports 25-27% of grain cargo with its wagons, and the rest is transported by wagons of private companies, of which there are more than 100 in Ukraine. But the market for these shipments is unregulated, and the state does not control it.

"Prices for grain trucks have really risen because there is seasonal demand, and the cost of wagons varies from 200 to 20,000 UAH during the year, although the cost of transportation does not change. This is due to the fact that farmers want to export 50 million tons of grain per year, although the infrastructure is designed to transport 3 million tons per month or 30 million tons per year," said V. Tkachev.

At the same time, all market participants actively respond to the results of auctions for the sale of grain transport services, which are regularly held by the UZ. Thus, in November, due to the lack of demand, the cost of renting grain trucks fell, so the price of transportation was lower than offered by truck carriers. But already in December, the cost of rail transportation increased again and exceeded the cost of road transportation.