The rail market needs an independent regulator to establish fair tariffs, the holding believes.
The initiative of Ukrzaliznytsia to “harmonize” tariffs for cargo transportation does not have any logic, because the transportation of one ton of grain costs more than one ton of ore. It follows from this that the tariffs for these transports should be different, said Metinvest CEO Yuri Ryzhenkov in an interview with Forbes.
He noted that mineral transportation is transportation by direct rail route from point A to point B, that is, from the plant to the port. At the same time, the mining and processing plant itself forms a railway route, and the UZ can only provide the main railway line and its own infrastructure – the track.
“And grain transportation is a more expensive operation for Ukrzaliznytsia: the train has to be assembled by small locomotives of several cars from different elevators at different railway stations before being delivered to grain port is higher than ore “, said Ryzhenkov.
According to him, during the war, UZ cargo tariffs more than doubled for metallurgists. Currently, logistics accounts for 40% of the cost of production, so the next increase in the railway tariff will reduce its competitiveness.
“We need a complete reform of Ukrzaliznytsia, that is, its division into several independent companies – infrastructure, traction, passenger. Each of these companies must set its own transparent tariffs for its services in energy market so that this regulator is an intermediary between the business and Ukrzaliznytsia in terms of tariffs for monopoly services Because now there is a railway monopolist who can offer any tariffs, and no one Metinvest’s general director can check how reasonable it is.
Remind you that Ukrzaliznytsia said that they earned more than 3 billion Hryvnia in six months, but in July and August the company faced losses in the range of 600-700 million Hryvnia per month.
Ukrzaliznytsia also revealed the lack of railways, which could become critical in 2028.
Source: korrespondent
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