Water transport plummeted last year due to war and drought

By: Trademagazin Date: 2023. 03. 10. 10:06

Fewer goods were transported over shorter distances in Hungary last year compared to 2021, with water transport falling the most, by 26 percent, but the performance of railways and roads also decreased, mainly due to the war situation and the drought. Intermodal traffic, in which the goods reach their destination by combining several modes of transport, was able to expand at the same time, according to the survey of the Association of Hungarian Logistics Service Centers (MLSZKSZ), which was presented at the 13th Transport Logistics Conference in Herceghalm on Thursday. This year, due to economic uncertainties, it is difficult to predict the expected performance of freight transport. The MLSZKSZ expects a performance similar to last year’s in intermodal traffic.

Last year was not a good year for domestic freight transport, due to the international economic difficulties, the jump in energy prices, inflation, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and crop losses caused by the drought, freight transport in Hungary fell. The volume of road, rail and water traffic (261 million tons) decreased by 6 percent, and its performance (50.2 billion ton kilometers) decreased by 0.5 percent compared to last year in 2021, according to preliminary statistical data.

The Russian-Ukrainian war limited the Silk Road traffic between Asia and Europe to the Polish-Belarusian border, avoiding Hungary. In addition, due to the booming Russian-Chinese trade, there was a lack of capacity on the Trans-Siberian railway. At the same time, as a result of the war, a new direction of transport was born: both Ukrainian import and export traffic between the Adriatic ports and Ukraine started, which, however, declined greatly in November due to the attacks on the Ukrainian infrastructure. Within Europe, the railways lost their competitiveness due to unorganized renovations, to which was added the increase in energy costs, which affected the railways worse. Therefore, the previous trend was reversed, and part of the traffic was diverted from the railway to the public road.