To relieve Russia’s maritime blockade of Mariupol, Ukraine’s main Azov seaport, Ukrzaliznytsia has increased its freight trains by 50%,

To relieve Russia’s maritime blockade of Mariupol, Ukraine’s main Azov seaport, Ukrzaliznytsia has increased its freight trains by 50%, to 24 trains a day, the state railroad reports. With freight trains running hourly along the 300 km route between Mariupol and Zaporizhia, the steel exports of Mariupol’s main employer, Metinvest, are reaching the Black Sea ports of Kherson and Mykolaiv. Concorde Capital’s Dmytro Khoroshun writes: “The increase of throughput to 24-28 trains per day should allow Metinvest to redirect its entire product volume currently being transported through the Azov Sea to Black Sea ports in case of an escalation of the Azov Sea blockage by Russia.”