Slovakia will join measures to block the border with Ukraine

This week, Slovak carriers warned of the possibility of blocking the border with Ukraine.

It is reported that already this Friday, December 1, the union of UNAS carriers may block the Cherry Nemetskoye border crossing point with Ukraine, demanding that the liberalization of transportation for the Ukrainian side be cancelled.

Thus, the Slovaks can join the blocking of the border with Ukraine, which has been ongoing for two weeks by several associations of Polish carriers. They also demand that Ukrainian carriers resume work under permits and actually cancel the so-called transport visa-free regime introduced by the European Union in June 2022.

The Slovaks earlier in November carried out a several-hour precautionary border blockade.

History of the issue
One day of idle time for a truck on a blocked Polish border costs one company losses of about 1 million UAH. Direct losses to the Ukrainian economy from the border blockade already amount to more than 400 million euros. Indirect losses are measured in billions of euros.

A day of downtime for one truck costs Ukrainian carriers 300-350 euros; Under current circumstances, the truck can only complete one color flight to Poland per month. Before the blockade, the figure was at the level of three colorais.

Almost 30% of liquefied gas and 10% of gasoline and diesel fuel come through the Polish route. Due to the blockade, there was a shortage of liquefied gas and the price exceeded 35 UAH/liter.

According to Textile-Contact, since the beginning of the strikes, the cost of a car for transportation from the ports of Poland to Ukraine has increased from $2 thousand to $7-7.5 thousand. An increase in logistics costs will lead to an increase in prices for textile products by 10-15%.

The cost of delivering one car transporter with new cars increased by 2 thousand euros - 5-6 thousand euros.

For Ukrainian furniture manufacturers, due to the blocking of the Polish border, the period of delivery of goods to a customer in the EU has increased to 15 days. Previously it only took a few days.

Now many Ukrainian companies cannot obtain equipment for their production and important raw materials, including through tolling contacts. Cargoes containing humanitarian aid and components for the defense industry are being delayed. In particular for the production of drones.

Can Ukrainian cargo travel to Poland?
Carriers say that if you combine Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, then all together the goods flow will be less than through Poland.

The closest country to get to Poland or from Poland to Ukraine is Slovakia. But the Slovak border cannot replace the Polish one. There is only one cargo checkpoint there - Uzhgorod - Vyshne Nemetskoe.

On the border with Hungary there is also only one crossing for large vehicles, Zahony - Chop.

For example, the standard route from Kyiv to Warsaw is 800 km, and through Uzhgorod - twice as long.

If you go through Hungary, it's an additional 100 km. If you go through Romania, the mileage increases by 2.5 times.