Cargo transferred to Russian Railways – Kommersant FM

Cargo transferred to Russian Railways – Kommersant FM

[ad_1]

Russian Railways benefited from the crisis in the Red Sea. Houthi attacks on merchant ships have led to an increase in shipping in Russia. According to the Financial Times, citing DHL, since December 2023, the number of requests for transportation via this route has increased by 40%. This route takes half as long as the alternative via the Cape of Good Hope.

However, the load on the network will not increase significantly, and Russian Railways will not raise tariffs, noted Arman Gasparyan, head of the logistics department of the Orlan company: “It is good for our economy that the transit infrastructure is working, these plans have been implemented for a long time. I would not say that the railways will be overloaded now, only because the volumes and capabilities of the infrastructure have previously made it possible to transport European goods in transit through Russia. Therefore, we will not see any special load on traffic and the rates will not increase much, maximum to 5%.”

But not all logistics companies are ready to use Russian railway routes, including, for example, the Danish Maersk. The demand for transportation within Russia could indeed be higher, but Western companies do not want to take risks by contacting Russian partners, noted Ksenia Chernikova, General Director of the Transguide company: “European companies try not to contact Russian carriers most often because of sanctions.

There is indeed demand due to the conflict in the Red Sea, and many carriers choose this route, or through the Cape of Good Hope. In general, now transit has not increased so significantly. If in 2021 it was about 1.1 million TEU, now it is at the level of 150-200 TEU.”

Participants in the Russian transportation market do not expect significant excess profits also because Chinese ships freely pass through the Red Sea, noted the founder of VIG Trans, Igor Rebelsky: “There are no severe downtime at the border or systemic abandonment of trains, as we saw before. Against this background, strong growth does not occur, although isolated cases, of course, are present. There are no problems at the moment, all sea lines that come from China in Russia pass through the Suez Canal, they notify the locals in advance about their passage and ownership, and in this case no one bothers them.”

At the same time, in February, Russian Railways reported an increase in rail transportation with China by 36%. Last year, a record 161 million tons were transported. The company explained this dynamics by the active exploitation of border crossings.


Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.

Ivan Koryakin

[ad_2]

Source link