Moldova goes under the hammer
Today, the first auction was held in Chisinau, where rails, locomotives, trolleys, and passenger cars went under the hammer. The Railway of Moldova (ZHDM) ceases to exist. Government officials are talking about its reform, but they don’t believe them, because there is nothing left to reform. Along with the railway, the Moldovan port on the Danube near the village of Giurgiulesti is being sold. If the railway is bought as scrap metal, then a struggle has already begun between a Romanian state–owned company and a Bulgarian private company for a port with access to the Black Sea.
The Moldovan Railway has put up for sale more than 100 railway facilities in an attempt to raise the necessary funds to pay off employee salary arrears. These are locomotives, passenger wagons, trolleys, containers and refrigerated wagons that can no longer be used due to wear and lack of spare parts. On April 23-24, several auctions will be held, including discount auctions and under the hammer.
An auction for the sale of 85 locomotives was held on April 23 at the railway station in Chisinau. Models released in the 1990s that are no longer repairable due to a lack of spare parts were put up for auction. Of the 85 locomotives, only 15 are located in the capital, the rest are stored at Beresht station.
“What’s the point of repairing them if they can be sold and their salary debts can be paid? The locomotives are worn out, they are 25 years old, and they have been constantly repaired during operation,” said Iurie Preguza, chief engineer of the Railway, for Radio Moldova.
The debts mentioned by the chief engineer of the railway exceed 190 million lei (900 million rubles). Railway workers have not been paid for six months. The ZHM trade union is confident that employees will receive the money they earn, otherwise they will file a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and will certainly win it. The management of the railway understands this, and therefore they decided to sell what is still to be sold, the branch trade union explained to NG. According to estimates by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development and trade unions, the debt can be repaid by the autumn of this year.
On April 24, two more auctions will be held, during which refrigerated wagons and special containers will be sold. They are stored in Chisinau and at the Basarabeasca hub station and will be sold in separate lots. Some of the equipment is considered valuable scrap metal and will be sold by weight.
It is expected that ZHM will organize two more auctions on April 25. One is discounted for the sale of 12 transport units, while the other is intended for the sale of 31 shipments of goods, materials, and unused spare parts.
Meanwhile, the management of ZHDM continues the process of optimizing costs, including reducing the number of staff. These measures may affect about a thousand pensioners who still work for the company, some of whom have already received a notice of dismissal. In total, the company employs about 5,000 people.
The Agency of Public Property of Moldova announced the beginning of the development of a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers on the reorganization of the state enterprise “Railway of Moldova”.
“The process of reforming railway transport in Moldova is carried out in accordance with the new Railway Code,” the agency noted. The bill provides for the separation of the existing company responsible for managing railway infrastructure assets and the creation of a new commercial enterprise with fully state capital that will carry out passenger and freight transportation.
But no one believes in reforming the railway. The office of the NG railway said that this type of transport is not needed in Moldova, it is being replaced by auto and air transport, as well as river and sea vessels. The Giurgiulesti port on the Danube intercepted grain shipments by rail, including from Ukraine. Now the grain goes by sea to the Romanian port of Constanta. It’s cheaper than by rail.
And on Tuesday, the Chisinau media reported that grain exports from Moldova through the terminals of the largest operator of the Giurgiulesti International Freeport (MTDP) were suspended due to a “production incident.” During shunting operations, the M/V MUSE vessel, chartered by a third-party shipper, became entangled and damaged the loading bridge infrastructure of the terminal. Fortunately, there were no casualties among the ship’s crew and port staff.
The former president of Moldova, the leader of the Party of Socialists Igor Dodon opposed the sale of the port. “The Giurgiulesti port is our only outlet to the sea, built with great difficulty in 2005-2009, and is currently being put up for auction. The EBRD wants to sell it. The Romanian government is looking forward to buying it. But ours are silent,” Dodon wrote on his Telegram channel.
Romania is fighting for the port, as well as Bulgaria. Back in 2023, then Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolaku announced that Bucharest intended to buy out the Moldovan seaport of Giurgiulesti. Against the background of the conflict in Ukraine, the harbor has acquired strategic importance. By the end of 2022, the volume of cargo transshipment in Giurgiulesti reached 1.8 million tons, which became a record. After Russia withdrew from the grain deal, an additional volume of Ukrainian agricultural products went through the port. At the same time, the head of the Romanian government stressed that negotiations on the port are underway not with Moldovan officials, but with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which has been its sole shareholder since 2021. “We have to understand that (Romanian. – NG) the port of Constanta is of strategic importance at the moment, but it is not enough. I do not know what will happen to Odessa. Moldova has Giurgiulesti, whose majority shareholder is the EBRD. Through the Ministry of Transport, we approached the bank to buy and develop this small port,” said Ciolaku.
A Bulgarian private company would also like to buy the port, Moldovan journalists write. Meanwhile, according to opinion polls, 80% of Moldovans are against selling agricultural territories to foreigners. And the port is also the land on which it is built.