Coal falls out of priority – Kommersant

JSC Russian Railways believes that if export shipments of coal from the main producing regions to the east, which are now on a priority basis, are transferred to the usual priority category for coal exports, transportation of more profitable cargoes can be significantly increased. We are talking about 2 million tons of oil products, ore, fertilizers and other goods per quarter. Experts, however, specify that coal deliveries are “better built”, and the real increase in the transportation of highly profitable goods may be less than the monopoly’s forecasts.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the calculations of Russian Railways for the meeting of the government commission on the socio-economic development of the Far East. It follows from them that the abandonment of the priority in relation to the transportation of export coal from a number of regions and their transfer to the standard category of priority for the export of coal will allow for the quarter to additionally export about 2 million tons of expensive cargo, “mainly oil products (0.8 million tons) and ferrous metals (1 million tons), fertilizers, grain and a number of other items.

Now, according to the temporary rules for determining the order of cargo transportation at the Eastern landfill, transportation of coal for export from Kuzbass, Buryatia, Khakassia, Tuva and Yakutia to the east is a priority. Corresponding instructions were given by the President of the Russian Federation and the government, on their basis Russian Railways concluded agreements with the regions on guaranteed export volumes. As a result, coal from these regions goes to the east in the third place, immediately after the transportation of military cargo and cargo for emergency response, and the rest of the coal exports in the sixth place, after oil products and many other categories of cargo.

As follows from the materials of Russian Railways, in the first quarter, the export of coal on behalf of the president to the east amounted to 24.4 million tons with a guaranteed volume of 24.8 million tons – this is over 90% of all export coal shipments to the east (26.7 million tons) . Transportation from the Kemerovo region lagged behind the plan by 1.9%, amounting to 14.8 million tons, from Khakassia – by 28% (1.1 million tons out of 1.5 million guaranteed volume), and transportation from Buryatia and Yakutia, on the contrary, exceeded the quota by 100 thousand tons. Of the regions that are not among the priority regions, with small volumes, growth is more often observed by 2022, however, for example, exports from the Novosibirsk region to the east have completely stopped (with exports of 0.4 million tons in the first quarter of 2022).

The representative of ELSI (combines Elga Coal and Sibanthracite companies) confirmed the stoppage of coal exports from the Novosibirsk region to the east due to a lack of transportation capacity, supplies were redirected to the ports of the south of the Russian Federation.

Coal production occupies a dominant position at the Eastern range (70% of the export cargo traffic), and “fixing these volumes significantly limits the possibilities of other sectors of the Russian economy,” Russian Railways reports. According to the company, following the results of the first quarter, the restriction of the need for the export of products of Russian enterprises in the eastern direction amounted to about 4.9 million tons of cargo, including 1.7 million tons of oil cargo, 0.8 million tons of ferrous metals, 0.5 million tons of fertilizers, 0.3 million tons of cargo in containers, 0.2 million tons of grain and 1.4 million tons of other cargo.

“The implementation of export transportation of coal products, including from certain regions, only under the sixth stage of temporary rules in order to ensure the prioritization of transportation of non-coal cargo with a higher gross value added in the east direction will increase the contribution to the country’s economy in the amount of up to 25 billion rubles. , revenues of JSC Russian Railways – up to 1 billion rubles, ”the materials say. Russian Railways declined to comment.

Meanwhile, coal miners are not too happy even with the current situation. Thus, in February, at a joint meeting of commissions under the State Council in the areas of “Transport” and “Energy”, it was said that the quota for the export of coal from Kuzbass, approved by Russian Railways, is 9.9 million tons lower than provided for by the instructions of the President (63 million tons).

At the same time, the tariff burden for Kuzbass coal companies, according to their data, for 2022 increased by 66-97% for power and 44-72% for coking coal. According to Sergei Tsivilev, head of the energy commission, a moratorium should be introduced on the growth of tariffs for coal transportation and the previously canceled distance discounts for export transportation should be resumed.

At the same time, shippers of oil products are also fighting for a place in the queue to the east. At the end of April, Anton Rubtsov, director of the department of the oil and gas complex of the Ministry of Energy, said that the Ministry of Energy had sent a proposal to the government to transfer rail deliveries of petroleum products to the Far East, both in export and domestic traffic, from the fifth category of priority to the fourth. Earlier, oil companies insisted on this (see Kommersant of March 28).

The head of Infoline-Analytics, Mikhail Burmistrov, recalls that the priority of deliveries of petroleum products in domestic traffic to the Far East should already increase due to their transfer to the subsidized category. In his opinion, constant changes in the queuing rules are destructive from the point of view of cargo flow planning. The expert also believes that coal supplies for export are carried out by empty return routes, using a large share of the innovation park, which ensures high rhythm. And if these shipments are downgraded, there is no guarantee that other shipments will replace them effectively.

Natalya Skorlygina, Evgeny Zainullin