After closing down its own coking plant, ArcelorMittal Galati brings this much needed commodity from Poland, on two routes: a rail route and an inland waterway one. These transport routes lead to a redundantly intricate solution... And yet, to ArcelorMittal, the story of the coke supply is plain simple: the supplier is a plant of the group and something must be done to make it work. They chose to sacrifice the coking facility in Galati, calling upon the lack of competitiveness, without mentioning the logistical issues. And these issues are not at all easily solved, as all the routes that connect Poland to Galati have their drawbacks.
In principle, the coke may be brought on railway either directly to Galati (through Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, or through Ukraine), or partially on the railway (up to a port on the Danube in Slovakia or Austria) and then on the Danube.
Of course, in terms of competitiveness, the transport should be as cheap as possible, so ships would be better than trains. Coincidently, ArcelorMittal Galati owns a fleet comprising a pusher and 36 barges and it seemed like the perfect solution.
Yet the problems are hiding in the details: Danube shipping is hampered by low waters in the summer and ice in the winter, and the mentioned fleet is optimised for operations on the Danube - Black See canal, where there’s no need for low draft. The need for a different fleet raised Ukrainian interest and that is how the Polish coke is shipped to Galati in foreign barges.
Despite the Ukrainian efforts, deliveries on the railway are more reliable and ArcelorMittal Galati pays more to get the coke by rail, leaving a big question mark over the decision to close the ”uncompetitive“ coking facility. Probably the Indian managers also became aware of this fact, since they accepted to build a new coking plant in Galati.
