Latvia, Railways, Transport

The rail company's management said in the report that the turnover drop occurred as cargo transportation generated less revenues. As the manager of public railway infrastructure, LDz generates revenues mainly from fees carriers pay for using the railway infrastructure. In the nine months of this year, these revenues made up 69.5% of the company's turnover.

At the same time, LDz managed to save costs in areas where expenditure could be reduced in proportion with business operations and to improve efficiency.

In the nine months of 2017, the number of train-kilometers decreased by 2.1% year-on-year in cargo transportation, and remained roughly unchanged in passenger transportation.

In January-September, public railway infrastructure was used to carry 33.309 million tons of freight over 6.758 million train-kilometers and 13.283 passengers over 4.568 million train-kilometers.

The most significant risks that might affect the performance results of LDz and the whole LDz group in the future include the future dynamic of EU-Russia sanctions and the development of Russian ports, diverting cargos from Latvian ports. To reduce the risks caused by reliance on transit cargos shipped in the East-West direction, LDz intends to step up cooperation with partners in neighbor countries, as well as develop alternative services, including combined deliveries and container train deliveries.

LDz reported EUR 139.712 million in turnover and a loss of EUR 1.078 million for the first nine months of 2016.

LDz is a fully state-owned enterprise.