Ukraine’s Interpipe is testing a new logistics route for delivering products to EU countries using rail and road transport, in particular through a terminal in Poland, the company confirms to Kallanish.
“Interpipe is currently carrying out test shipments of pipes by rail cars to a terminal with a wide-gauge rail track in the polish city of Chelm,” the company’s procurement and logistics director, Oleksiy Yanovsky, tells Ukraine’s Centre for Transport Strategies (CFTS). “The products are then reloaded into trucks and delivered to their final destination in Europe.”
Interpipe has also very carefully studied the possibility of using the Danube for deliveries to EU countries. “However, unfortunately, the current level of service does not allow it to compete with direct road transport either from an economic point of view or from the point of view of transit time,” he adds.
“This method is relatively economically justified, given the current level of rates for cars, but has a number of disadvantages, in particular, the issue of combating rust on the surface of pipes arises,” Yanovsky claims. “However, it is unlikely this method of delivery will be acceptable for railway products due to the extreme sensitivity of these products in storage and transportation conditions. For railway wheels and wheel pairs, direct road transport will probably remain the most appropriate method of delivery to customers in Europe.”
Earlier, Interpipe said it was trying to reach pre-war production levels through the development of its Interpipe Niko Tube product range (see Kallanish passim). Pre-war output was some 70,000 tonnes/month compared to 50,000 t/m today.
Interpipe produced almost 43,500t of rail wheels in January-June, a significant on-year increase (see Kallanish passim).
In 2023, it supplied 387,000t of pipe and 95,000t of railway products.
Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria
