The state-owned company Lithuanian Railways (LTG) has received a letter from the Council for Rail Transport, which brings together 20 railway companies from various countries, confirming a ban on the transit of rail freight from Lithuania via Belarus.
The ban will take effect on February 7 and will apply to shipments of oil products and fertilizers from Lithuania via Belarus, Mantas Dubauskas, LTG spokesman, has said.
He said he did not know if the ban would apply to non-transit freight.
Belarus’ Foreign Ministry announced the ban earlier on February 2, a move that came in response to the recent halt of the transit of Belaruskali potash fertilizers via Lithuania.
LTG has said earlier that there have been an average of 18 trains from Lithuania to Belarus going daily since February 1, excluding empty potash fertilizer wagons that are returning to Belarus after being unloaded in Klaipeda.
“In February, trains loaded at Lithuanian stations should make up about 30% of all trains crossing the Lithuanian-Belarusian border from the Lithuanian side, with most of them going to Belarus, Russia and Ukraine,” it said.
Trains formed in Lithuania mainly carry oil products, fertilizers and ferrous metals, according to the company.
The US imposed sanctions on Belaruskali, one of the world’s biggest potash producers, last August. The sanctions came into force in early December 2021.
LTG terminated its long-term contract with the Belarusian potash giant as of February 1 after the Lithuanian government decided it was in the country’s national interest.
In response to Belarus’ actions, some Lithuanian producers are already trying new routes through Poland, according to Vaidotas Sileika, president of the Association of Lithuanian Stevedoring Companies.
Sileika says Lithuanian carriers could transport cargo by trucks or by rail via Latvia or Poland.
“One option is to shift some of the freight from rail to road and bypass Belarus or, if the transit of road transport is not closed, to cross Belarus by road,” he said in a comment to the media. “Another option would be to bypass Belarus and try to move goods by rail via Latvia, but it is doubtful whether sufficient transit capacity would be ensured on this route. Yet another alternative is to ship goods via Poland, which has been tried by some Lithuanian producers.”
Sileika said the ban on rail transit via Belarus could disrupt the flow of 2 to 3 million tons of freight or even more from the port of Klaipeda.
It is not clear yet if the Viking train that transports containers to the Lithuanian seaport will be blocked, he noted.
With the measures making supply chains more expensive, cargo owners could start thinking of moving their shipments out of Klaipeda, according to the association’s president. (LRT/Business World Magazine)