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MSC acquires stakes in intermodal terminals in Ukraine

Marco Raimondi — Fri, 16 May 2025 06:53:17 +0000

The situation in Ukraine is still largely unstable due to the Russian invasion that has been ongoing since February 2022 and disrupted the global supply chain. Despite this, shipping giant MSC has decided to enter the Ukrainian intermodal terminals market via its logistics arm Medlog.
The company acquired a 50% stake in N’UNIT, a company operating intermodal terminals in Kharkiv, Dnipro and Kyiv. Moreover, Medlog bought a 25% stake in the container terminal in Mostyska, on the border with Poland and equipped to switch rail gauges, which is also part of N’UNIT’s network, as Forbes Ukraine wrote.

Reactions from the industry

Industry players have already labelled this move as the deal of the year. “MSC’s Medlog advances into the intermodal terminal market of Ukraine. Deal of the year that will have a long-lasting positive impact on Ukrainian logistics”, said Volodymyr Shemayev, director of the Office for International Projects at Ukrainian Railways. “MSC has not previously invested in Ukraine. Their interest in closing this deal amidst active hostilities underscores the exceptional performance and strategic value delivered by (…) N’UNIT”, added Andrey Stavnitser, owner of P&O Maritime Ukraine always on LinkedIn.

The deals in detail

More specifically, MSC bought the 50% stake in N’UNIT from Yegor Grebennikov who kept the remaining half. He was also the owner of 50% of the terminal in Mostyska and sold half his shares to Medlog. The ownership of this terminal is now split as follows: 25% belonging to Grebennikov, 25% to Medlog and 50% to Lemtrans groups, controlled by Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov.

Kharkiv terminal

18 hectares
16,700 sqm warehouse.
Own grain laboratory
15,000 tons grain storage capacity

Dnipro terminal

6 hectares
Steel production stuffing hub
2,000 TEUs capacity

Kyiv terminal

8,000 sqm covered storage
1,500 TEUs capacity
Fertilizers handling hub
28,8 million tonnes wood and grain stuffing

Mostyska terminal

36 hectares
Ukraine-Poland border crossing
Gauge-changing equipment
4,000 TEUs capacity
Grain transshipment

Another Ukraine-Lithuania rail freight connection is in the works

Marco Raimondi — Mon, 06 May 2024 09:20:20 +0000

Ukrainian Railways (UZ) and the Lithuanian railway holding LTG Group agreed to develop a new freight service between Kyiv and Klaipėda. “The first test runs of the intermodal cargo transportation route are planned for this year”, LTG added.
The initiative is still in its early stages, as a Memorandum of Understanding was recently signed by the parties to lay out the foundations of the project. The journey would include transiting through Poland, as Belarus remains an unviable option and Ukraine plans on being integrated on EU railways. This new service might provide Ukraine with new possible market partners such as Scandinavia thanks to the links to and from the Lithuanian port of Klaipėda.

This announcement is not the first example of cooperation between Lithuania and Ukraine in the context of rail freight. At the end of 2023, UZ and LTG Cargo set up a container service linking Kyiv to Kaunas to offer an alternative to the road blockades on the Ukraine-Poland border. Moreover, the two companies cooperated with Ukrainian logistics company Global Ocean Link to start transporting semi-trailers on the rail via the same route.

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Lithuania-Ukraine semi-trailers by rail are much faster than by road

Marco Raimondi — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 09:49:44 +0000

Ukrainian Railways (UZ) and Lithuanian LTG Cargo have been testing the transport of semi-trailers on the Klaipeda-Kaunas-Kyiv line. “We can deliver semi-trailers with cargo three times faster than by road transport” said LTG Cargo’s CEO Eglė Šimė.
The main reason why rail would be faster, Šimė said, is that road border bottlenecks can last up to two weeks. The UZ specified that the test train took nine days to complete its route, with plans for the future to bring it down to five. Hints about this initiative were given by UZ in mid-October. The two companies now claim to be ready to make this service a regular one, whereas for the near future it will run at customers’ requests.

LTG Cargo will take care of transport on the section for the port of Klaipeda to the Kaunas Intermodal Terminal, where its Polish branch, LTG Cargo Polska, will pick the cargo up. The ride then continues through Poland until the Medyka-Mostyska border crossing, where the goods are moved into broad UZ’s broad gauge rolling stock and taken to the Lisky terminal in Kyiv. From here, the semi-trailers will reach their destinations by road.

Image: Telegram. © Ukrainian Railways

Not UZ’s first tests with semi-trailer

This is not the first initative for UZ concerning semi-trailers. The company is collaborating with Austrian Rail Cargo Group for this type of service along the Kyiv-Lviv-Budapest-Vienna axis. This project, was announced in May, and successfully tested in October, with expectations of going live before the end of the year. The wagons for both these projects are provided by German rolling stock trader VTG.

Lithuania-Ukraine cooperation

When it comes to collaboration between Ukraine and Lithuania, it does not stop with this new initiative. Despite there is nothing yet concrete, UZ confirmed that it is considering using this route to import grain crops. Lithuania has been proposed as a candidate to import grain from Kyiv by parties from both countries since the summer. In July, Lithuanian Ministers sent a joint letter to the EU Commission requesting assistance in establishing a rail export corridor via the Baltic countries. In August, the president of the Ukrainian Logistics Alliance, Edvins Berzins underlined the potential of the Baltic route for the country’s grain exports. Moreover, yesterday LTG Cargo announced the expansion of its grain fleet with 500 new wagons.

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Ukraine and Lithuania to start Kyiv-Kaunas rail freight tests

Marco Raimondi — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 09:18:19 +0000

Ukrainian Railways (UZ) said it will launch rail freight transportation tests between Kyiv and Kaunas, in Lithuania. The initiative will start next week and is part of the framework of cooperation between UZ and the Lithuanian national railway company LTG.
The information was shared by the Ukrainian company in a press release celebrating the first test train connecting Kyiv and Rail Cargo Group’s (RCG) BILK terminal in Budapest. Despite the lack of available information concerning the Kyiv-Kaunas test, both UZ and LTG have shown keenness to expand their international services. It is not clear whether these tests will involve the transportation of non-cranable semi-trailers, as the Kyiv-Budapest one did. Information concerning the route of these tests is also scarce, but it will probably involve Poland, due to the difficulties of transiting through Belarus.

Lithuania and Ukraine’s expansion plans

For example, UZ is cooperating with RCG also for a new service between Kyiv and Vienna, which should be operative by the end of this year. In addition, in July, the company set up a new subsidiary to enter the European market: UZ Cargo Poland. The first service operated by the new company between Ukraine and Poland is connecting Gdansk with Kyiv, Odessa, Dnipro, and Vinnytsia. LTG and its subsidiary LTG Cargo are also working towards increasing its international presence. The company’s Ukrainian branch, LTG Cargo Ukraine, is slowly picking up pace again after significant slowdowns caused by the Russian invasion of Kyiv.

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Kyiv-Vienna rail freight services could commence by year’s end

Marco Raimondi — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 09:19:48 +0000

Intermodal railway connections between Ukraine and Austria might soon become a reality. Ukrainian Railways (UZ) and Rail Cargo Group (RCG), the freight subsidiary of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), pledged to develop a route running from Kyiv to Vienna. The route would go through Lviv and Budapest.
The two parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 14 September, as UZ highlighted. However, this cooperation was announced already in May at the transport logistic exhibition in Munich. According to the new MoU, UZ will be responsible for the management of rolling stock, terminals, and customs procedures in Ukraine. RCG will take care of the same procedures along the section of the route in the European Union.

Back in May, the parties were hoping to launch test runs and regular services this August. However, there have been some delays, with UZ now stating that preliminary test transportation of semi-trailers between Kyiv and Budapest should start before the end of September. Moreover, the Ukrainian company added that regular services are expected to be launched by the end of the year. The new route would run along three (or four) TEN-T corridors. The Kyiv-Lviv section is part of the North Sea-Baltic Corridor, the Lviv-Budapest line is part of the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor, and the Budapest-Vienna connection is part of the Orient-East Med as well as Rhine-Danube Corridors.

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