The state-owned company Ukrzaliznytsia, metallurgical plants and scrap procurement companies, during a joint meeting on January 23, in Kyiv, reached agreements in principle on the terms of scrap metal sales, which would improve the results of the railway operator’s auctions.
During the meeting, the head of UZ Oleksandr Pertsovsky reported on large stocks of scrap metal ready for sale and admitted that the auctions do not give the desired result. Thus, in 2025, the company sold 79.6 thousand tons of scrap, and shipped only 30.3 thousand tons. At the same time, 91.7 thousand tons of resource ready for sale have been accumulated at the railway yards.
Representatives of Interpipe and Metinvest expressed their understanding of the state company’s problems and stated their readiness to work out mutually beneficial conditions for the sale of scrap and railcars so that the seller can increase the sale of goods, and the buyers can provide the metallurgical industry with resources.
The participants of the event agreed that it is necessary to divide the lots according to the terms of delivery. About 80% of Ukrzaliznytsia’s scrap should be sold on the terms of delivery of railcar lots to the buyer’s yard (FCA according to the international classification “Incoterms”) and about 20% should be left for sale on the terms of self-delivery from the state company’s railway stations, including by road (EXW conditions).
“Lots need to be divided into volumes that will be sold on FCA and EXW terms, as well as to determine in the contracts and adhere to specific terms for scrap shipment,” said Valentyn Makarenko, Chairman of the Board of Interpipe Dniprovtormet.
His opinion was supported by Ivan Kovalevsky, CEO of Metinvest-Resource, who emphasized the need to determine FCA terms and adhere to clear terms within which the purchased scrap would be delivered.
Representatives of the Property Policy Department of Ukrzaliznytsia heard the opinion of their market colleagues and declared that these positions would be taken into account in draft contracts for future scrap auctions.
Oleksandr Pertsovsky also admitted that the company had thousands of decommissioned wagons that needed to be cut into scrap for further sale, but the railway did not have the capacity to carry out this work. Representatives of Ukrzaliznytsia reported that they would deliver 24 wagons (with all components weighing 20 tons each) to the buyer’s freight stations on their own routes, from where buyers can pick them up. This is a traffic safety requirement.
This position was supported by metallurgists. However, steel mills emphasized the importance of indicating in the shipping documents and adhering to the actual net weight of the wagon – only the metal component without unnecessary components that could have accumulated over the years of operation of the wagon, for example, coal.
Olexander Pertsovsky set the task: to put these wagons up for sale no later than February 14, so the market expects the first auctions. Especially since this year started extremely positively: at the auction for the sale of scrap metal UZ on January 19-21, it was the metallurgical plants that bought 77% of the total volume of raw materials that the railway put up for this trading session. And this is a record performance on the part of metallurgists. (Minprom)