Railway grain transportation in Ukraine loses pace for four months straight

The volume of grain cargo transportation by the Ukrainian railway in February 2020 reduced to 3.5 mln t, Zernovoz.ua analysts report.

However, although the pace is falling for the fourth month in a row, the current marketing year indicators are higher than those of the previous season.

"In January we forecast that the volume of grain cargo transportation by railway in the coming months would remain at the level of 3.6-3.8 mln t per month, which was supported by a number of factors. Resulting from the spread of panic on the financial and commodity markets, which continues in recent weeks, the demand for agricultural commodities in the world markets has decreased. Another important factor was the redistribution of grain export cargo flow between road and river transport facilitated by the warm winter, as a result of which river transport navigation on the Dnieper River has not stopped," the analysts note.

According to the report, a total of 28.7 mln t of grain cargoes have been transported by rail since the beginning of 2019/20 (July-February), 19.6% higher from the previous marketing year.

86% of grain cargoes in February were shipped for export, 12% were internal and 2% were transit.

As a reminder, in the week of Feb. 29 – Mar. 6, staple grains shipment in Ukrainian seaports amounted to 1.28 mln t, 31% higher from the previous week's volumes.