Metinvest Group increased the export of steel products to Poland in 2023 by 16% year-on-year, says the head of the logistics department of Metinvest Polska, Yulia Mezentseva.
“The increase in cargo flow is facilitated by the unblocking of routes. However, transshipment at ports and border crossings remain bottlenecks,” she tells Poland-based Puls Biznesu, published on the company’s web site. “2023 was a little better for us than the previous one. There were no longer so many traffic jams and queues on the Polish railway network, which contributed to increased transport efficiency.”
A total of 1.9 million tonnes of Metinvest products were transported through Polish railways and ports.
“Of these, about 1.3mt are metal products, 378,000 tonnes of iron ore and 237,000t of coking coal,” Mezentseva specifies. “Of the total volume of products delivered from Ukraine to Poland, 939,000t were exported to other countries through Polish ports, in particular Germany, Italy and Slovakia. At the same time, transshipment at Polish ports is four times slower than at Black Sea terminals.”
Despite the improvement in the situation with the export and transit of Ukrainian goods through Poland compared with 2022, problems with transportation still exist and relate directly to mining and metals industry products, Kallanish notes.
Metinvest Polska hopes that the suspension of the protests at the Polish-Ukrainian border will facilitate smooth transport by road and rail. The company is interested in building long-term business relationships in the Polish market.
“We talk about challenges, but at the same time we are ready to develop solutions together with the Polish side. We want to simplify procedures and transportation,” Mezentseva states.
In 2024, Metinvest Polska expects to at least maintain, and perhaps even slightly increase, the volume of supplies of certain goods to the Polish market.
“At the same time, local producers fear that Ukrainian steel may flood the Polish market, although for comparison: In 2021, 1.2mt of the company’s steel went directly to the Polish market, a year later 700,000t and in 2023, 0.8mt, so this looks like temporary ‘political’ speculation against Ukrainian exports,” she concludes.
Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria
