Increasing rail freight cargo rates and a highway crackdown on overweight trucks will push more cargo to river barges

Increasing rail freight cargo rates and a highway crackdown on overweight trucks will push more cargo to river barges, predicts Dmytro Kozachenko, executive director of the Ukraine Rivers Association. He tells Interfax-Ukraine: “We are still far away from the figures before the 1990s, when 60 million tons of cargo were transported on Ukrainian rivers. However, we can talk about some recovery of the market.” According to the State Statistics service, the river cargo breakdown last year was: construction materials — 39.5%; ore — 14%; and grain — 11%.