News

With the summer in full swing and the country’s agribusinesses looking forward to the harvest season, LTG Cargo, the freight transport company of the Lithuanian Railways (LTG) Group, is reinforcing its capacities. The company’s fleet of wagons is up to 10% larger than last year, wagon formation practices are being further streamlined, and operational planning and communication with customers are being strengthened. The company has also expanded its services for grain shipments from Ukraine to help the country’s businesses to secure the wagons and containers that are missing on the market due to the Russian war in Ukraine. 

This summer, following the refinement of the logistics chain solutions, the companies have launched a service for the recovery of different types of wagons from Ukraine, which was devastated by the Russian war. This enables customers to retrieve and put their assets back into service. Until now, LTG Cargo, together with its subsidiary LTG Cargo Ukraine, had only brought back to Lithuania on a pilot shipment its own wagons and those leased to Lithuanian grain growers. 

In order to make the new service as smooth as possible, LTG Cargo Ukraine started transporting wagons from Ukraine to Lithuania via the alternative Polish-Ukrainian border crossing point Izov-Hrubieszów, and switched the wagons from the broad gauge to the European gauge at the Siedziszów terminal in Poland. The service is organised in cooperation with Ukrainian Railways, PKP LHS and PKP Cargo. The launch of the service via an alternative terminal allows transport to be completed up to 5 times faster.   

“The first transports for our customers required concentration due to the number of partners involved in the logistics chain and the highly complex procedures for coordinating the permits required for the transport. We have now returned more than fifty wagons to customers in Lithuania, including those for the transport of grain. In the near future, we intend to expand this service to customers in other Baltic countries. 

Agricultural produce is a crucial part of the food supply chain, and we will strive to offer our customers the most efficient harvest transport service possible. Each additional wagon or grain carrier will allow us to ensure the highest possible transport volumes”, – says Eglė Šimė, CEO of LTG Cargo.   

The company is also preparing for this year’s grain season by other means. “LTG Cargo has completed all the planned repairs to its technical fleet for grain growers before the start of the season. It is estimated that more than 1,200 wagons will be used to transport this year’s harvest in Lithuania – almost 10% more of the company’s own fleet and the fleet offered to customers than last year. 

The company will continue the practice of more efficient formation of wagon trainsets, adopted last year, by forming a complete train set at one time and in one place, without reshaping at intermediate stations. At the same time, the company is stepping up its communication with customers, both to ensure a timely response to customer needs or changes during the peak grain season, and to assess opportunities for future service expansion.   

“Up to 70% of the year’s harvest is transported during the peak grain season. Therefore, in the coming months, we will give grain transport the highest priority, both in terms of efficient transport planning and in terms of solving operational issues and ensuring wagon turnaround. We are in constant contact with our customers and will update our plans promptly according to their needs. Last year, we transported 3.7 million tonnes of this type of product, including almost 2.3 million tonnes for customers in Lithuania. Despite the less favourable weather conditions for agriculture this year, we expect to transport a similar amount this year”, – says E. Šimė.