PKP Cargo freight deliveries fell in October

Poland’s largest freight forwarder, PKP Cargo, announced on Tuesday that the volume of goods it had delivered in October of this year had decreased significantly as a result of diminished international trade in major commodities. According to the Polish press, the company said in its press statement that it had delivered 9.3 million tonnes of goods in October, 2016, which represented a 10.6 percent drop, y/y. Cumulatively, after 10 months, the group transported 80.3 million tonnes, the statement said. This drop was also about 10 percent PKP Cargo, which ships ores and metals, construction materials, and coal, among other things, has access to major European seaports and cooperates extensively with major industrial players in the steel, metallurgy and mining sectors in Poland. In its press statement on Tuesday, it said that the slowdown in freight was caused by fewer exports of metals and ores by sea to Western Europe, as well as reductions in Polish coal production. “The reason [for] smaller domestic transport in October, compared to the same period last year, [is that there] were weaker dynamics among the markets of coal, ores and pyrites, stone and metals...less transportation of coal [than in the] previous year, less parts ordered for the largest energy groups in Poland, as well as reduced transportation in imports from the East and export by sea ports,” the statement read. The company, which employs 2,800 people in Poland, is one of the largest rail freight operators and terminal management companies in Europe. Early last year, it signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in rail freight operator AWT in Czechia, a move that it hoped would increase its share in the Czech freight forwarding market.