Ukrainian Railways freezes projects to expand throughput capacity towards Izmail port

MOSCOW. May 13 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Railways has suspended the implementation of projects to expand the throughput capacity towards the Izmail port, Ukrainian media quoted deputy director of the company's commercial operations department Valery Tkachev as saying in a statement made at a meeting with exporters.

"We unloaded some 330 to 350 railcars [for the Izmail port per day], now it is not more than 220. Therefore, it makes no sense for us to perform any infrastructure expansion there," Tkachev said in response to questions from market participants at the meeting.

Two projects with a private investor were planned on the railroad infrastructure towards the Izmail port, he said. Due to the lower load on the Danube ports and its shift to the Black Sea ports, following the launch of the sea corridor declared unilaterally by Kiev, the investor refused to join in the projects.

"We had two expansion projects there [on the railroad infrastructure towards the Izmail port]. And there was a private investor there. I will not say who it is, but it is a participant of the grain market. And when the peak load subsided, he refused to fund the expansion of this station," Tkachev said.

Ukrainian Railways is considering projects to expand the throughput capacity of the Izmail rail station, as well as other railroad sections, deputy director of the Ukrainian Railways' Odessa Railroad regional branch for logistics and operations with ferries Ivan Yemets said in mid-2023. The sections in question were Artsiz-Izmail and Belgorod-Dnestrovsky - Izmail, he said. Ukrainian Railways also considered the option of electrifying the Belgorod-Dnestrovsky - Izmail rail line.

The Ministry of Restoration earlier said that the ports of the Danube cluster handled more than 5.6 million tonnes of goods, in particular, four million tonnes for export between January and March, which is down 16% year-on-year.