In early August, IMK began shipping grain from its elevators to ports using its own fleet of grain railcars for the first time.
According to the company's announcement, a total of 140 railcars were purchased from the Kryukov Wagon Works, and another 10 grain railcars were received from the USAID Project "Economic Support for Ukraine," aimed at supporting export logistics and modernizing Ukraine’s border crossing points for efficient agricultural product exports.
“The launch of our own railway wagons fleet in our company is a significant event. IMC is an export-oriented company, two of the three crops we grow (winter wheat and corn) are actually fully sold to foreign markets, and the most optimal export sales channel for us is railway transportation to seaports with further transportation by sea to the end consumer. We need to transport an average of 60-70 thousand tonnes of grain to the ports by railway every month. Having our own railway wagons fleet will allow us to significantly save on the cost of railway logistics. Moreover, the company does not plan to limit itself to the wagons it has already received - by the end of this year, we plan to add another 150 grain wagons to our own railway wagons fleet. As a result, we estimate that starting next year we will export up to 80% of the grain produced by the company using our own railway wagon fleet," summarized Oleksandr Verzhykhovskyi, CEO of IMC.
For reference: IMK is an integrated agricultural company in Ukraine. Its activities include crop production (corn, wheat, sunflower); storage of agricultural products; and milk production. IMK manages 120,000 hectares of land in Poltava, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions. IMK’s shares were listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in May 2011.
