Polish infrastructure is not ready for the volume of Ukrainian exports.

The total volume of exports through Polish ports decreased by 1% due to the infrastructure’s unpreparedness: the country cannot handle cargo both at the border and in the ports, and the infrastructure is designed for imports, not exports, said Dmytro Nikolayenko, the top manager of Metinvest.

He said that due to the blockade of the Black and Azov seas, the company had to look for new types of transport for export. Still, alternative routes, to Poland’s northern ports and Romania’s southern ports, are challenging. As Nikolayenko explained, in Ukraine the railway track is wide, but in Europe it is narrow. This affects not only overloading but also product storage. In addition, during overloading, impurities can get into metallurgical products, and cleaning is expensive. Because of this, Metinvest lost more than $19M in 2022 alone.

“The route through Poland entails serious logistical difficulties. There are problems with the speed of movement of goods – it is half as much as compared to Ukrainian,” the manager emphasized.