(Vienna, 24 June 2022) – Since the outbreak of the war, the ÖBB Rail Cargo Group (RCG) has been supporting Ukraine with what it does best – transport and logistics services. As well as bringing aid shipments into Ukraine, which are offered to NGOs free of charge, RCG also dedicates all available resources to transporting grain out of Ukraine to help raise funds in the country and free up storage space for the next seedtime and harvest, while also counteracting rising food prices around the world. These efforts are part of the European Commission’s Solidarity Lanes action plan.
In the period between March and May 2022 alone, RCG transported over 130,000 tonnes of grain from Ukraine to Germany, Italy, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. This is the equivalent of a train travelling from the Ukrainian border to North Germany every working day. Every RCG freight train leaves Ukraine with around 1,300 to 1,600 tonnes of grain.
Speaking about the increasing exports from Ukraine, Clemens Först, Spokesman of the Board at RCG, emphasised: “I’m glad that the ÖBB Rail Cargo Group is able to make a small contribution to supporting Ukrainian agriculture in this difficult period and secure seeds and storage space for the next harvest, while also ensuring the supply of affordable grain worldwide.”
Increased grain exports
The ÖBB Rail Cargo Group is stepping up its grain transport from Ukraine even more in June and July 2022. Transport runs to Austria will be gradually doubled to around 2,600 tonnes in July 2022 and those to Hungary will be increased by up to 66% to around 6,500 - 9,100 tonnes in the same period. Grain exports to Germany will remain the same for now, at around 36,000 tonnes per month.
Hungarian rail transport of Ukrainian grain has increased enormously of late. Rail Cargo Hungaria (an RCG subsidiary), is responsible for around 75% of grain exports from Ukraine to Hungary: currently 10 - 15 trains per week. Around 70% of this grain stays in Hungary, while the remaining 30% is exported, mostly to Italy.
Up until May 2022, RCG also transported a total of over 33,500 tonnes of grain from the Ukrainian city of Reni to the Romanian port of Constanța. Diesel shortages made it necessary to switch to the use of inland waterway transport in May 2022. There are currently 4 barges sailing the waterways from Reni to Constanța on behalf of RCG. This allows around 20,000 tonnes of grain to be transported every month.
Rail Cargo Group: ÖBB freight transport
As the leading rail logistics specialist in Europe, we shape the industry. 365 days a year – 24 hours a day. From Europe all the way to Asia. We connect people, businesses and markets – every mile of the way. We are present in 18 countries and have our own employees in 15 of these. Our 5,755 logistics professionals of 34 different nationalities enable us to get 463,000 trains safely to their destination every year – that's around 1,270 trains per day. We transport 94 million net tonnes every year with our efficient end-to-end logistics solutions. Our rail share of 28% (preliminary figure) of the total goods traffic in Austria makes us the front-runner in Europe. The operating holding company of the Rail Cargo Group is Rail Cargo Austria AG.