Māris Kleinbergs, Chairman of the Board of SJSC “Latvijas dzelzceļš”: “During the first three quarters of this year, “Latvijas dzelzceļš” group continued work to boost the whole enterprise’s efficiency and paid special attention to stabilizing and increasing freight shipping volumes. In the current geopolitical circumstances, this has indeed been a challenging task, but we can be satisfied with what we have accomplished – the amount of freight carried by rail grew by 9.4 percent against the same period a year ago to EUR 16.84 million tons. The number of rail passengers increased significantly this year, by 40 percent, which yet again proves the significance of the rail company’s major passenger infrastructure modernization projects, which will further increase the number of people using trains in their day-to-day lives.”
Import freight made up the bulk, or 67.6 percent, of the rail freight carried in the three quarters. The most notable rail freight segments included coal (23.6 percent), oil and oil products (19.7 percent) and grain, grain products, seeds and fruit (17.9 percent). Mineral fertilizers made up 4.8 percent of total rail freight, timber and timber products accounted for 4.9 percent and the share of other freight was 29.1 percent.
Another important performance indicator of SJSC “Latvijas dzelzceļš” is the mileage covered by trains – it is used to set track charges and estimate the wear and tear of infrastructure. In the first nine months of 2022, the mileage covered by trains grew by 6 percent against the same period year ago. In freight shipping, it rose by 7.9 percent, and in passenger transportation increased by 4.6 percent. In the three quarters of 2022, 3.51 million train kilometers were run on the “Latvijas dzelzceļš” public use infrastructure carrying freight and 4.73 million train kilometers were run transporting passengers (including LLC “Gulbenes-Alūksnes bānītis” – 36,000 train kilometers).
In the first nine months of this year, SJSC “Latvijas dzelzceļš” generated EUR 201.23 million in operating revenue, an increase of EUR 6.5 million against the first nine months of 2021. As a result of the significant rise in the prices of energy and other resources, operating costs have been growing as well – while in the first nine months of 2021 they amounted to EUR 188.9 million, in the first nine months of this year costs grew by EUR 9.3 million to EUR 198.2 million. The profit earned as a result of the group’s business operations in the first nine months of 2022 is EUR 1.766 million.
In 2022, the main priorities and goals of SJSC “Latvijas dzelzceļš” group involve raising productivity, balancing finances, maintaining and developing high-quality and safe publicly accessible railway infrastructure, as well as constantly enhancing organizational and technological processes. Significant attention will be paid to the diversification of target markets and freight segments by attracting freight offers in new markets and developing new services.
The financial statements of SJSC “Latvijas dzelzceļš” and its group are available here (in Latvian): https://www.ldz.lv/lv/neauditeti-starpperiodu-finansu-parskati