“Large mining enterprises began to transport products by motor vehicles, which worsens the condition of the roads.”, — write: www.unian.ua
Large mining enterprises began to transport products by motor vehicles, which worsens the condition of the roads.
UNIANLarge mining enterprises have already begun to refuse the services of Ukrzaliznytsia due to high transportation tariffs, and to transport products by motor vehicles. Because of this, Ukrainian roads are broken. This was stated by the executive director of the National Association of the Extractive Industry of Ukraine (NADPU) Ksenia Orynchak.“Kyiv region has already switched over to motor vehicles. Kirovohrad region, which transports critical raw materials for our country — titanium-containing ores — has also switched to motor vehicles. And what do we have? A closed circle. Because UZ tariffs are increasing, UZ is losing customers, and again increases tariffs. As a result, we have broken roads as a final result, we will get a very large percentage of destroyed roads in the country, and it will also be a burden on the state budget to repair it all,” Orynchak says.
At the same time, she noted that the business did not wait for Ukrzaliznytsia’s economic rationale for raising tariffs, despite the fact that the company recently received financial assistance from the EBRD in the amount of more than half a billion euros.
“The EBRD allocated 480 million euros to Ukrzaliznytsia for one project, 180 million for another. That is, in sum, this is a huge amount of money. No business or private structure in Ukraine will be allocated such money during the war. But even with such funds, without showing their reports, they put business in front of the fact that they will raise the tariff. And at whose expense will we cover these increases? At the expense of the end consumer,” the expert emphasized.
According to her, the tariff policy of state monopolists will in the future lead to the refusal of investors to enter Ukraine, because, in the absence of dialogue, it is impossible to plan business.
“The situation looks like a collapse. And I don’t know how we will get through 2025. We have no dialogue, we are stuck in the economic clutches of the authorities. Tariffs are increasing not only on Ukrzaliznytsia – they have increased on water supply, on electricity, now – on gas supply and Ukrzaliznytsia In other words, the price of everything has increased by 3-4 times. In such conditions, it is impossible to implement President Volodymyr Zelensky’s peace plan, because it will not come here no investor. Why do mining companies or agricultural companies come to Europe and start business there? Because Europe gives subsidies and insurance. And we are a country where everything is done to make Ukraine unattractive for investment,” the expert summed up.
As a reminder, thanks to the increase in the volume of transportation, Ukrzaliznytsia received UAH 1.7 billion in net profit in the three quarters of the year, and its turnover increased to UAH 78 billion. At the same time, the company significantly increased operating costs, and because of this, initiated a 37% increase in freight rates.
Business strongly opposed this decision: the associations called on the management of UZ to more effectively dispose of billions of profits, because the consequences for the economy could be catastrophic. For example, the Danube Shipping Company announced the shutdown of the fleet in the event of a tariff increase, and the ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih plant warned of the risk of closing the plant, which employs 20,000 people.