In the first nine months of this year, the number of rail passengers continued to gradually return to the pre-pandemic level, with 13 million passengers carried by the infrastructure of SJSC “Latvijas dzelzceļš” (LDz) in the three quarters of the year, which is an increase of 11.3 percent against the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, rail freight volumes continued to drop because of the geopolitical situation and related reasons.
One of LDz’s most important performance indicators is the number of kilometres travelled on its railway infrastructure, which is used as the basis for calculating the track charge. In the 9 months of 2023, 2.37 million train-km of public-use railway infrastructure was used for freight traffic and 4.82 million train-km for passenger traffic (including 36 thousand train-km for "Gulbenes-Alūksnes bānītis" Ltd.).
The volume of freight transported by railway infrastructure in Latvia in the first three quarters of this year was 11.59 million tonnes, which is 5.24 million tonnes or 31% less than in the first 9 months of 2022. In the 9 months of 2023, grain, grain products, seeds and fruit (33.2%), oil and oil products (18.0%) and coal (12.4%) made up the largest part of the freight carried by rail.
LLC “LDZ CARGO”, one of Latvia's key transport and logistics companies, generates the bulk of LDz Group's revenue. In order to increase rail freight volumes and diversify freight segments, in January 2023 LLC “LDZ CARGO” launched freight transportation operations in Estonia and opened a branch in the neighbouring country in June. In the third quarter of the year, LLC “LDZ CARGO” continued work to attract new customers and develop new routes in Estonia, and in the first 9 months of the year the company transported 272 thousand tonnes of freight in Estonia.
LLC ”LDZ ritošā sastāva serviss”, a subsidiary of SJSC “Latvijas dzelzceļš”, also continued to promote its services in the Baltic States and elsewhere in the third quarter of this year. In 2023, the company continued active cooperation with foreign customers and business partners, as well as successfully attracted new foreign customers for rolling stock repairs.
Meanwhile, “LDZ Loģistika” generated revenue by providing transport-freight forwarding services, and in the 9 months of this year, the company’s net operating turnover was 11.8 million euros, which due to a decrease in the overall freight volume, is a reduction of 16.6% from the first 9 months of last year. LLC “LDZ Loģistika” continues cooperation with customers who need their freight to be transported from the European Union and other countries via Latvia as a transit country, offering a broad range of modality of all types: road transport, sea, railway, reloading.
The net turnover of LLC "LDZ apsardze" increased by 25% or EUR 1.38 million in the first 9 months of this year as the company's revenue from security services grew. During this period, the company, which is a member of LDz Group, continued to expand its technical security services and offered a wide range of security and fire safety services to its customers.
The net turnover of SJSC “Latvijas dzelzceļš” was 123.39 million euros, which is an increase of 19.58 milliom or 18.9% against the 9 months of 2022. LDz Group’s consolidated revenue in the 9 months of this year were 194.94 million, which compared to the three quarters of 2022, is an increase of 7.4%. At the same time, LDz Group's operating result for the first 9 months of 2023 is a loss of 730 thousand euros.
Considering the tendency for freight volumes to decrease in recent years, the main priorities and goals of the "Latvijas dzelzcels" Group involve the promotion of the company's operational efficiency by reviewing business, organisational and technological processes in order to save costs and stabilise finances, as well as to ensure the Group's competitive performance in the future.
The report on the operations of SJSC "Latvijas dzelzceļš" and LDz Group in the third quarter of 2023 is available here: https://www.ldz.lv/lv/neauditeti-starpperiodu-finansu-parskati