Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) in 2017 totaled 5.5 million euros and loss amounted to 1.1 million euros, almost one million euros less than a 12-month loss of over two million euros set out in the financial plan. A reduction in freight volumes in Latvia and partial redirecting of Russian exports to Finland sent freight shipments declining. The increase in the fuel excise duty in February 2017 and wage pressure increased costs.
"We were under a lot of pressure, but the year ended with a significantly smaller loss than forecast. Robust development in our three lines of business -- freight shipment, freight car lease and repair of rolling stock -- have kept the company profitable since November. The volume of freight shipments has been on a stable rise thanks to new goods and container shipments. We started with shipments within Estonia, we have transported over 15,000 tons of crushed limestone for large customers already and we are testing a Tartu-Muuga-Tartu container train for which there is a lot of interest on the part of customers," EVR Cargo Board Chairman Raul Toomsalu said.
Like in 2017, the key categories of freight were transit shipments of fertilizers, mineral fuels, and oil shale mined in Estonia. The amount of cargoes transported on Estonian railways was similar to 2016.
On the freight car lease market demand continued to grow in 2017. As at the end of the financial year, the company had roughly 1,500 freight cars leased out, marking an increase by 71% over 2016.
"Putting the freight car lease business in the focus has been a justified step which has gone as planned in all respects, and we forecast an increase in demand for this year as well," Toomsalu said.
EVR Cargo is an Estonian state-owned rail cargo operator whose core business areas are carriage of goods, repair of railway engines and freight cars, as well as renting out freight cars. The company employs a workforce of 670.
(Source: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/transport/?doc=140117)