ArcelorMittal demands review of Ukrzaliznytsia’s decisions regarding routes to the Odesa port
17.04.2025 - 15:06
ArcelorMittal is concerned about the changes made by Ukrzaliznytsia regarding the formation of trains to the Odesa port.
This is stated in the statement of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih.
The company recalled the difficulties that the company has been overcoming over the past three years, due to Russian attacks, energy shortages and expensive and complex logistics. The partial opening of the ports in 2023 had a positive impact on the company’s activities, and now they are trying to bring the company to break even.
“That is why we are extremely concerned about the change by JSC Ukrzaliznytsia from April 5, 2025 to the plan for the formation of trains heading to the Odesa Sea Commercial Port, as a result of which the tariff distance for trains with our products was increased by 257 km, and accordingly the cost of products also increased significantly,” ArcelorMittal said.
The company considers such a change in routes artificial and groundless. This has a negative impact on competitiveness and puts the company’s plan to break even and effectively operate at risk.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih noted that they are the only company in the Kryvyi Rih region that transports finished metallurgical products to the Odesa port in the amount of over 100 thousand tons per month, so changes to the train formation plan significantly affect only ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih.
“We consider the above-mentioned change in the tariff distance to the Odesa commercial sea port to be artificial and selective, and we do not exclude the possibility of targeted economic pressure on ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih,” the company added.
Deputy General Director for Supply of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih Oleksandr Bilyanskyi stated that the company considers any abuse of monopoly position unacceptable and is ready to appeal to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine on this issue.
“We hope for an objective review of the decision of Ukrzaliznytsia. A positive resolution of this issue will allow us to avoid unreasonable costs, increase the delivery time of goods, and increase the competitiveness of our company’s products in the mining and metallurgical complex as a whole,” Bilyanskyi noted.
Earlier, USM reported that Ukrzaliznytsia is changing the plan for forming trains heading to the port of Odesa.
