Railway freight traffic in Ukraine from 2011 to 2016 decreased by 27%, Deputy Director General of state enterprise Ukrpromzovnishekspertyza Serhiy Povazhniuk has said.
According to him, the volume of rail freight traffic began declining in 2012 due to the stagnation of industry. The rate of decline accelerated in 2014-2015 after the annexation of Crimea and the fighting in Donbass. In 2016 rail freight traffic decreased by 1.7% compared to 2015 and by 27% compared to 2011, to 344 million tons. At the same time, calculations for 2014-2016 used data without taking into account the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the ATO zone.
Transportation of fertilizers (by 47%), coal (by 45%), oil and petroleum products (by 42%), coke (by 33%), ferrous metals (by 32%) fell most of all in five years. Growth over a five-year period was recorded only in grain carriage (by 93%).
In 2016 the share of various freight (sand, gravel, etc.) amounted to 26% of the cargo transportation structure, 25% were ore raw materials, 20% coal, 9% grain and cereals, etc. (Interfax-Ukraine/Business World Magazine)
