Slovak holding company MINERFIN, a.s. turned to the Ukrainian authorities because of the actions of Ukrzaliznytsia, which blocked the transportation of iron ore to the largest metallurgical enterprise in the Czech Republic. The actions of the railway monopolist, according to MINERFIN, a.s., already from June 1, can complicate the transit of Ukrainian goods through the territory of Slovakia until it is completely stopped.
In its letter, the Slovak company indicates that it owns the Zaporizhzhia Iron Ore Plant in Dniprorudnyi, Ukraine, as well as a transport company with its own fleet of 1,041 railway cars. To the assets of MINERFIN, a.s. also belongs the metallurgical plant Trinecke Zelezarny, which is the largest in the Czech Republic.
According to MINERFIN, a.s., the Czech metallurgical enterprise is the buyer of iron ore produced by JSC Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Plant. Until recently, its delivery was carried out under the terms of DAP Chop, and the company Budamar logistics, a.s. already carried out the transportation of these products in the territory of Europe, in particular the Slovak Republic.
Considering the availability of its own railcar fleet MINERFIN, a.s. in April of this year, made a decision to transport iron ore through Ukraine by means of its logistics company Minerfin-Trans LLC, replacing the main transporter of ore around Ukraine at the time, Transport Company Cargotranslogistic LLC. The latter's partners, as indicated by MINERFIN, a.s., JSC Ukrzaliznytsia leased its own wagons at a non-market price of UAH 450 per wagon per day.
"For this purpose, in April 2023, LLC Minerfin-Trans submitted to JSC Ukrzaliznytsia applications for the transportation of iron ore in the amount of 70,400 tons. However, the submitted applications for transportation remain not approved by JSC Ukrzaliznytsia until now time," the letter said.
To date, MINERFIN, a.s. states, a situation has arisen when the consignor and consignee have agreed to transport cargo, the Slovak carrier CARGO (Budamar logistics, a.s.) has agreed to transit transportation on the territory of the Slovak Republic, and Ukrzaliznytsia, without any reason disagrees with plans to transport iron ore delivered from a Ukrainian enterprise to a metallurgical plant in the Czech Republic.
"Thus, due to the collusion of officials of UKRZALIZNYTSIA JSC and private carriers who are trying to monopolize the cargo transportation market, 15% of the monthly volume of iron ore transportation by rail transport in Ukraine is blocked.
Due to the above-mentioned corrupt actions, the state-owned JSC Ukrzaliznytsia and the exporter of metallurgical products JSC Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Plant (one of the main taxpayers and foreign exchange revenue to Ukraine) will not receive a monthly income of more than USD 7,000,000," MINERFIN, a.s. said in its letter.
In addition, the company says, starting from June 1, 2023, the Budamar corporation, as the owner of the railway transport operator in the Slovak Republic, will take measures to limit the approval of the transportation of goods going from Ukraine through the territory of the Slovak Republic to Europe.
"This, in turn, can lead to a significant drop in exports from Ukraine, which will deepen the economic crisis in the country during the difficult wartime," the MINERFIN, a.s. company summarized in its letter. and asked the Ukrainian authorities to intervene in order to solve the problem of blocking applications for the transportation of iron ore by Ukrzaliznytsia as soon as possible.
The letter was sent to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andrii Yermak, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Oleksii Danilov, the Vice Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, the head of the State Regulatory Service Oleksii Kucher.
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