The Estonian national rail freight company Operail has transported 1,1 million tons of goods during the first half of 2023. This is the second consecutive year the company has lost significant volumes in the first six months. During the first six months of 2021 and 2022, Operail moved 6,6 million tons and 3,6 million tons respectively.

However, the company said it was well aware of the fact that volume would drop further this year. “Exactly half of the 2.2 million tons of cargo volume forecast for 2023 was transported in the first half of the year”, Operail pointed out. The company’s Chairman Raul Toomsalu stated that this first half-year saw extraordinary expenses, including layoffs which led the company’s staff to be cut by 50 per cent.

‘Volumes dropped because of the war’

Operail indicated that the main cause for these drops in volumes is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For example, it decided to stop transporting cargo originating from Russia or Belarus as of 1 January 2023. Moreover, already during the first nine months of 2022, the company’s volumes had halved because of the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia and Belarus.

In order to maintain a stable financial position, Operail sold what it called non-strategic assets. These included its Finnish subsidiary, Operail Finland, sold to Nurminen Logistics for 27,7 million euros and 807 wagons to Kazakh ATASU Group and Skinest Rail for 22,1 million euros. In March, the rolling stock business definitely closed down and their regular services stopped, shifting to only project-based ones. For example, “Operail has just started a new service for small customers – weekly regular trains where you can reserve a carriage seat for even just one carriage”.

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