Railways report record first-half revenue

At a recent conference, Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR) reported that its 6-month revenue reached over VND4,500 billion, an increase of more than 10% over the same period in 2023. This is a record semi-annual revenue for VNR and higher than the annual revenue of the 2019-2021 period. On average, the company recorded more than VND24.7 billion per day.

This year, VNR aims to earn 6,258 billion VND. So after half a year, they have completed nearly 72% of the plan. The company has not announced the 6-month profit figure.

The management board said that passenger transport output in the first 6 months increased by nearly 21% compared to the same period last year. During Tet alone, the railway industry sold 650,000 train tickets, earning nearly 401 billion VND, 7.5% higher than the same period last year.

The Corporation has put into operation specialized train pairs such as the “heritage connection” train on the Hue – Da Nang route, the “Da Lat night train journey” or charter trains with itineraries and services according to the request of the ordering party.

VNR also implemented solutions to increase international freight transport output such as exploiting more Vietnam – China intermodal transport products; transporting transit goods through China to Russia, Europe, Mongolia and Central Asia.

However, in recent times, the railway industry has recorded two major incidents including landslides on the top of Bai Gio tunnel and Chi Thanh tunnel, causing congestion on the Hanoi – Ho Chi Minh City railway line. The impact of the incident led to additional costs for repair and indirect damage of more than 106 billion VND.

Vietnam Railway Corporation consists of 25 subsidiaries, 17 affiliated units and 8 joint ventures and associates. VNR is assigned by the State to manage the railway infrastructure system with a total length of 3,143 km, including 15 routes passing through 34 provinces and cities from North to South.

Last year, this company escaped losses after 3 years thanks to a profit of 77 billion VND. In the period 2020-2022, they recorded negative profits of hundreds of billions and the highest loss was more than 1,300 billion VND. By the end of 2023, VNR still had an accumulated loss of more than 2,080 billion VND, one and a half times higher than its equity.

In the VNR ecosystem, Hanoi Railway (HRT) and Saigon Railway (SRT) are the two largest members. Last year, the financial health of these two units showed many signs of improvement, with profits of VND14 billion and VND11 billion, respectively.

In the first quarter of this year, HRT and SRT both did well, reporting profits three times higher than the annual plan thanks to increased travel demand. In the coming time, these two companies will merge after being approved by the shareholders’ meeting. Both are implementing procedures for this process.