Slovak railway operator may stop transporting Ukrainian goods

The Slovak holding company “MINERFIN, as” appealed to the Ukrainian authorities because of the actions of Ukrzaliznytsia, which blocked the transportation of iron ore to the largest metallurgical enterprise in the Czech Republic. The actions of the railway monopoly, according to “MINERFIN, as”, from June 1 may complicate the transit of Ukrainian goods through the territory of Slovakia, up to its complete cessation.

In its letter, the Slovak company indicates that it owns the Zaporozhye Iron Ore Plant in Dneprorudny in Ukraine, as well as a transport company with its own fleet of 1041 railway cars. The assets of “MINERFIN, as” also include the Třinecké Železarny steelworks, which is the largest in the Czech Republic.

According to “MINERFIN, as”, the Czech metallurgical enterprise is a buyer of iron ore produced by JSC “Krivoy Rog iron ore plant”. Until recently, its delivery was carried out under the terms of DAP Chop, and already on the territory of Europe, in particular the Slovak Republic, the company “Budamar logistics, as” was engaged in the transportation of these products.

Taking into account the presence of its own wagon fleet, “MINERFIN, as” in April of this year decided to transport iron ore by Ukraine using its logistics company LLC “Minerfin-Trans”, replacing the main carrier of ore in Ukraine at that time LLC “Transport company” Cargotranslogistic “. To the partners of the latter According to MINERFIN, as, JSC Ukrzaliznytsia leased its own wagons at a non-market price of UAH 450 per wagon per day.

“For this purpose, Minerfin-Trans LLC in April 2023 submitted applications to Ukrzaliznytsia JSC for the transportation of iron ore in the amount of 70.4 thousand tons. However, the submitted transportation applications remain unapproved by Ukrzaliznytsia JSC until now” , the letter says.

Today, they say in “MINERFIN, as”, a situation has arisen when the Consignor and the consignee have agreed on the transportation of goods, the Slovak carrier CARGO (“Budamar logistics, as”) has agreed on transit transportation on the territory of the Slovak Republic, and Ukrzaliznytsia, without any reason does not coordinate plans for the transportation of iron ore supplied from the Ukrainian enterprise to the metallurgical plant in the Czech Republic.

“Thus, due to the collusion of officials of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC and private carriers who are trying to monopolize the freight transportation market, 15% of the monthly volume of iron ore transportation by rail in Ukraine is blocked. Due to the above corrupt actions, the state-owned Ukrzaliznytsia JSC and the exporter of metallurgical products JSC “Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Plant” (one of the main taxpayers and foreign exchange earnings to Ukraine) will not receive monthly income of more than 7,000,000 US dollars, “MINERFIN, as” stated in its letter.

In addition, they say in the company, starting from June 1, 2023, the Budamar corporation, as the owner of the rail transportation operator in the Slovak Republic, will take measures to limit the coordination of the transportation of goods coming from Ukraine through the territory of the Slovak Republic to Europe.

“This, in turn, may lead to a significant drop in exports from Ukraine, which will deepen the economic crisis in the country in difficult wartime,” MINERFIN, as summed up in its letter and asked the Ukrainian authorities to intervene in order to quickly resolve the problem of Ukrzaliznytsya blocking applications for transportation of iron ore.

The letter was sent to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, Chairman of the State Regulatory Service Oleksiy Kucher.