Why the road-freight rate to the EU must return to an economically justified corridor?

Dear partners,

This letter is deliberately open and public. We are not bargaining behind closed doors, and we are not lodging a claim against any single company. We are showing all our partners a calculation drawn from our own trip journal, and we ask for one thing: to return the price of carriage to a corridor that covers the cost of the haul, leaves the carrier a normal margin, and does not consume the export from which that margin is earned.

Zaporizhabraziv produces electrocorundum, silicon carbide and abrasive grain, and sells them to processors in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and other EU countries. The buyer compares our consignment not with a slogan, but with the Brazilian, European and — where the duty allows — Asian equivalent. In that arithmetic, logistics is part of the price by which both the plant and the carrier of its product win or lose the contract.

For January–September 2026 the journal records 898 European trips with freight in euro and the invoice in euro. The median rate in the first quarter was €2,050. The median in the third quarter was €2,800. The increase is 36.6%. The median invoice moved from €18,700 to €19,483, that is only 4.2%. Tonnage remained about 21 tonnes. Distance did not change. The price per kilometre did.

1. What the trip journal shows

Source — the plant’s operational road-transport journal as of 2 October 2026. Sample: valid freight from €500, invoice in EUR, freight not marked as dollar-denominated.

2. The formulas from which a justifiably lower rate follows

Logistics share:  w = F / V × 100%.
F is the freight of the trip, V is the invoice amount. First quarter: median w = 10.9%. Third quarter: 14.4%. The target is w ≤ 11%, with a working guide of 10.5–10.8%.

Specific freight:  f = F / T.
T ≈ 22 t. First quarter: f ≈ €95/t. Third quarter: f ≈ €131/t. The target is €85–100/t, guide €95/t, that is €1,870–2,200 per trip.

Increase in the rate:  Δ = (F₃ − F₁) / F₁ = (2,800 − 2,050) / 2,050 = 36.6%.
The invoice changed by 4.2%. Fuel, road tolls and the driver’s wage did not rise by a third in eight months. The difference is rent, not indexation.

Annual saving for the exporter:  E = (F_actual − F_target) × N.
F_actual = €2,800, F_target = €2,100, ΔF = €700 per trip. The pace is 100 European trips a month. E ≈ €840 thousand a year. This is a resource for the price to the buyer, or for additional trips — not a discount for its own sake.

3. Cost of the haul

Model of a loaded Zaporizhzhia–Central Europe haul, about 1,900 km. This is an analytical reconstruction with stated assumptions, not an extract from any particular carrier’s accounts.

Margin at the third-quarter rate on an effective cost of €2,100:  m = (F − C) / C = (2,800 − 2,100) / 2,100 = 33%.

One third above cost on a regular paid haul is excess profit. War risk and the queue were already in the first-quarter rate, near €2,050. There is no ground for loading them a second time in the third quarter. The fair corridor, with a margin of 8–12%, is €2,050–2,350.

Dollar hauls in 2026: 145 trips, median freight $3,490, median share of the invoice 14.3%. In the spring the median rose to $5,155–5,300 and the share to about 19–20%. This is a different product; it must be calculated separately. The logic is the same.

4. Why excess profit hits the carrier itself

Carrier revenue on the plant’s portfolio:  R = F × Q.

Relative change:  R₂ / R₁ = (F₂ / F₁) × (1 + ε × (F₂ − F₁) / F₁).

F₁ = €2,800, F₂ = €2,100, F₂/F₁ = 0.75. A 25% cut in freight reduces the cost of the delivered lot by 3.6 points of the invoice (14.4% × 0.25). The EU buyer does not so much cut consumption of abrasive as switch supplier, so we take ε in the range −0.6 to −1.2.

Scenario A.  Rate €2,800, volume −15%:  R_A / R₁ = 0.85.

Scenario B.  Rate €2,100, ε = −0.6, volume +15%:  R_B / R₁ = 0.75 × 1.15 = 0.86.

Scenario C.  Rate €2,100, ε = −1.2, volume +30%:  R_C / R₁ = 0.75 × 1.30 = 0.98.

Scenario D.  Contract lost within 12–18 months:  R_D / R₁ → 0.

The difference of €700 per trip, at a pace of 100 trucks a month, is about €0.84 million a year. That money either keeps Ukrainian abrasive grain inside the buyer’s specification, or finances additional trips at the target rate. Less export means fewer trucks. More export means work for everyone ready to run at a justified price.

A forwarder’s excess profit on regular export harms the shipper directly: either the plant’s margin is cut, or the price rises and the volume goes to a competitor. In both cases a long contract becomes impossible. A partner who earns more on the customer than the customer can bear on the EU market is not a partner for three years.

5. The proposal

1. Base rate. €2,100 for a curtain-sided trip of about 22 tonnes on the European haul (Zaporizhzhia — Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, northern Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland). Contract corridor €1,900–2,200, depending on mileage. Guide €85–100 per tonne. This is a return to the first-quarter median plus a reserve, not dumping.
2. Diesel indexation only, once a quarter. F_t = F₀ × (1 + α × (D_t − D₀) / D₀), where F₀ = €2,100 and α = 0.35. D is the average diesel price on the Ukraine / Poland / Germany haul; D₀ is October 2026. The change applies if the absolute deviation is at least 5%. Queue time is paid under a waiting tariff and does not sit in the base.
3. Volume in exchange for price. The plant gives priority on European trips to those who sign a framework agreement, at a pace not below that of the first half of 2026.
4. The dollar haul to the United States — a separate schedule within 30 days: mileage, fuel, port, tolls, margin. Sea freight as a separate line. The guide for the share of land logistics is not above 12% of the invoice.
5. Transparency.  The invoice shows mileage, the base rate, the fuel component and idle time. “The market has risen” is not a calculation.

Why this is written in the open

Because the rate of recent months is already a signal to everyone who hauls abrasive grain from Zaporizhzhia. To hide the calculation would be to ask for a discount. An open letter means something else: here is the journal, here is the formula, here is the corridor in which we are ready to guarantee volume. Whoever enters this corridor gets the long haul. Whoever remains on the third-quarter rent remains on the spot market, for as long as the spot market lasts.

Zaporizhabraziv has operated since 1939 and has kept its export to the EU throughout the war. This is not seasonal cargo. A forwarder who carries it at a price that can stand against Turkish abrasive grain will earn more on this haul than on three months of excess profit. We are ready to put your actual costs into the formula. We are not ready to pay a rent that makes Ukrainian corundum unsaleable on the market for which these trucks are running.

Yours sincerely,

Oleksandr Kozeratskyi
Chairman of the Board
Zaporizhzhia Abrasive Plant PJSC