austrian focus

ÖBB Rail Cargo Group and its Hungarian subsidiary, Rail Cargo Hungaria transported more than 1 million metric tons of grain from Ukraine last year, the multiple of the amount of the previous year. The company stands ready to continue helping Ukrainian people and expects the freight volume between the two countries to continue increasing this year.

Rail Cargo Hungaria (RCH), a member of Austria’s ÖBB Rail Cargo Group, saw its transport of goods from Ukraine skyrocket in 2022. Since the outbreak of the war, the company group has put the transport of food consignments from Ukraine into focus and increased the throughput of transported goods to 1 million metric tons, which places the company amongst the leading railway companies providing assistance. The group prioritizes the transportation of food shipments from Ukraine, mainly corn, sunflower seeds, wheat, soy, barley, and vegetable oil. Half of the incoming goods are iron ore, but the second largest items are grain and oilseeds. Two-thirds of the grain, which arrived in Hungary from Ukraine was transported to Hungarian customers, the remaining part was forwarded to grain depots in Italy and Austria.

“Together with its Hungarian subsidiaries, ÖBB Rail Cargo Group considers it a priority task to provide support to the Ukrainian people and economy with its services. We expect the freight volume between Hungary and Ukraine to continue to increase this year. We are ready to continue to fulfill the increasing transport demands expressed by the Ukrainian side,” said Imre Kovács, Member of the Board of Directors of Rail Cargo Austria and Chairman of the Board of Directors of RCH. The year 2022 was laden with challenges for the rail freight industry and RCH was no exception. The 300% increase in the price of traction energy significantly worsened the competitiveness of rail transport versus road transport. Rampant inflation led a rise in all types of operational costs. RCH is implementing strict measures in personnel management, work organization and vehicle management to counterbalance the difficult operating environment and has been successful in obtaining additional orders to compensate for lost traffic.

A story of success

RCH’s privatization took place in 2008 when its predecessor, MÁV Cargo Árufuvarozási Zrt. was acquired by ÖBB’s freight transport subsidiary, Rail Cargo Austria. The privatization of MÁV Cargo was a story of success: the Hungarian state received nearly HUF 103 billion in revenue, and Rail Cargo Austria expanded its services to the economies and industrial zones of Southeastern Europe by using the capabilities, assets and network of connections of the market-leading Hungarian rail freight company. The new owner upgraded the company’s equipment, set up RCH’s independent traction capability, including its own locomotive fleet, and established the foundations for the automation of the goods handling processes. “RCH played