Containers have found a place for themselves at BAM

Minister of Transport Vitaly Savelyev announced the extension for this year of measures to intensify the export of containers from the ports of the Far East, including the preservation of three additional pairs of container trains and an increase in the export of containers in gondola cars. According to him, the export of coal, which was replaced by container trains, will remain at a guaranteed level due to the expansion of the Eastern landfill. According to experts, container imports, which saturate the consumer market, are now more important than coal exports, for which there are alternatives in the form of western and southern ports of the Russian Federation.

In 2023, according to the plans of the Ministry of Transport, the volume of container traffic will increase by more than 60% compared to 2022. This was announced by the head of the Ministry of Transport Vitaly Savelyev at a meeting of the president with members of the government on January 11. According to him, the average daily export of containers with imported goods by rail and road in December 2022 amounted to 3.713 thousand TEU, which is 8.8% higher than in November. Daily indicators of export of containers by rail in December set records: 4.3 thousand containers, 1.1 thousand of them in gondola cars. Over the ten days of January, daily exports by rail and road decreased, amounting to 3,066 containers, however, according to Mr. Savelyev, since January 7, it has stabilized and increased to the level of December. “Together with the operator community and JSC Russian Railways, we expect this year to ensure the average daily export of containers at the level of 4,100–4,300 containers per day,” Mr. Savelyev announced.

The autumn crisis of overcrowding in the Far Eastern ports due to the influx of a large number of imported containers prompted Russian Railways to give a 20.7% discount on their export from the ports of the Far East in gondola cars in order to use the incoming empty fleet of this type (see “Kommersant” dated September 28 and October 31, 2022). This discount has been extended for the whole of 2023. “In November, 43 such container trains were sent, and in December there were already 121 trains, that is, about four trains daily,” Mr. Savelyev said. “We plan to increase the number of trains to five in February.” Now, according to the minister, the loading level of the Far Eastern ports is 97%, “there are more than 10 thousand containers waiting for unloading, of which 8 thousand are on line ships and 2.2 thousand containers are on tramp ships; ships with 19,000 containers are moving towards the ports.”

The container industry last year also sought to assign additional container trains to the Far East to bring platforms there. In November, a decision was made to assign three pairs of additional trains. Industry participants asked to maintain this level for this year as well (see Kommersant of January 11). At the meeting, Vitaly Savelyev asked the President to support the decision already agreed with First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov to extend the appointment of these three trains until the end of the year. “At the same time, we will maintain the guaranteed volumes of coal export from Kuzbass, Khakassia, Yakutia, Tuva and Buryatia precisely due to the additional capacities of the Eastern landfill,” Mr. Savelyev said. In mid-November, he estimated the loss in transportation of thermal coal due to the launch of three additional container trains at 800 thousand tons by the end of the year, which approximately corresponds to about 7 million tons on an annualized basis (see Kommersant dated November 17, 2022).

The carrying capacity of the Eastern landfill for 2023 should increase to 173 million tons, the actual volume of traffic, according to Russian Railways, should exceed 160 million tons. Last year, the carrying capacity reached 158 million tons, 148.8 million tons of cargo were actually transported. An agreement on the norms for the export of coal for export from Kuzbass in 2023 between the government of the region and Russian Railways has already been concluded, they will amount to 53.1 million tons guaranteed and 55.1 million tons indicative (“Kommersant” saw the text of the additional agreement).

Kommersant’s source says that similar documents should be signed with the governments of Buryatia, Khakassia and Tuva. At the same time, production in Yakutia is growing, in 2023 production at the Elginskoye field should increase from 20 to 26 million tons. Thus, coal, in theory, should occupy all the growing capacities of the main line.

A Kommersant source in the coal industry draws attention to the transition to maintaining separate statistics on the maximum export opportunities through the Eastern landfill and realistic export volumes: in his opinion, given the socio-economic importance of ensuring coal exports to the east, these two figures should coincide. However, now the export of containers with imported goods from the Far East is a higher priority than the organization of the export of coal through the Eastern landfill, believes Mikhail Burmistrov, head of Infoline-Analytics. In his opinion, the problem of coal export can be mitigated by opening approaches to the ports of the South, primarily to the port of Taman, and if this does not work, then introduce discounts on the tariff for coal transportation through the ports of the North-West. And for the export of containers, current measures, including the expansion of the use of gondola cars, the expert notes, are not enough – trade with China will continue to grow, and the problem of organizing the import of investment goods in the face of sanctions will worsen.

According to Kommersant, at a meeting on December 20 with Andrey Belousov, it was decided to initiate an extension of the zero duty on the purchase of containers for the entire year 2023 in the EEC. It was reset to zero in 2022 to eliminate the shortage of containers that arose with the withdrawal of international shipping lines of their container fleet from Russia.

Natalya Skorlygina