Oversized drilling rigs in ports – Newspaper Kommersant No. 32 (7477) of 21.02.2023

The cessation of deliveries from Europe led to a sharp increase in demand for the import of oversized cargo through the Far East – machine tools, production lines, power equipment, heavy special equipment. But the ports of the region are already overcrowded, the problem is aggravated by the shortage of specialized containers for oversized cargo, now they are transported simply in holds and on decks. Even if the cargo was delivered to the port, further transportation is complicated by the need to coordinate the dimensions with Russian Railways when transported by rail, which is why motor vehicles remain the main option.

Importers and logisticians note an increase in demand for the import of oversized cargo through the Far East. As Kommersant was told at Alfa Transit, the number of requests for the calculation of the transportation of machine tools (mainly turning and laser cutting), production lines (for oil mills), transformers, drilling, agricultural and construction equipment, medical and packaging equipment has significantly increased. , printing equipment. In general, since March 2022, the company specified, the growth was approximately 50% (including oversized — 30%).

The founder of VIG Trans, Igor Rebelsky, says that there is an increase in demand for oversized transportation from China, the main range of goods is self-propelled, construction, special equipment of non-standard sizes, factory equipment, entire industrial complexes, parts of factories and industries. “In general, the growth in demand for oversized transport from China compared to 2020 is about 35%,” he says.

Vyacheslav Borodin, General Director of Oversized, estimates the growth in demand for oversized transportation through the Far East at 400%, primarily for the transportation of equipment: truck tractors, dump trucks, construction equipment, and to a lesser extent for equipment.

The general director of the KBT customs broker, Yulia Shlenskaya, claims that “at the moment” there is no particular increase in demand for the transportation of oversized cargo through the Far East, unlike last year, when since January 2022 the service of organizing cargo transportation using bulk carrier and general cargo fleet was regularly offered. “The peak of such requests occurred during the late summer – mid-autumn of 2022,” she notes. “As a rule, demand begins with the onset of spring, when the mining and construction industries, the petrochemical industry, and companies servicing special equipment “wake up.”

Most of the transported goods are heavy special equipment for the mining industry (heavy bulldozer equipment and caterpillar excavators, articulated frame equipment, dump trucks with dumps and spare parts, etc.), industrial equipment for processing plants, thermal power plants, state district power plants, refineries, rolled metal products and metal products (steel rope in coils, rolled products).

Meanwhile, the flow of oversized cargo from Europe has dried up. “At the moment, we see from our requests that there are very few oversized cargo from Europe – imports in this segment have fallen by 80%,” says Igor Rebelsky. However, he clarifies, Turkey is growing – by an average of 20%.

With the introduction of sanctions, the transportation distance has increased, says Vyacheslav Borodin: if earlier delivery from the ports of St. Petersburg or Novorossiysk was an average distance of 2,000 km, now delivery has grown to 8,000 km: “Accordingly, the need for transport has also grown four times” .

When importing oversized cargo through the Far East, there are difficulties associated with a shortage of transport and equipment. Since August 2022, when “traffic jams” began from ships in the waters of the ports of the Far East, the ports tried not to take on cargo ships for processing, preferring the container fleet and ships with containers on board, Yulia Shlenskaya notes, adding that the lack of sufficient capacity and developed port infrastructure significantly limits the prospects for the development of oversized transportation.

“Further, depending on which region we need to deliver the goods and what kind of transport we choose for this, we either face a shortage of low-bed trawls and flatbed trucks among road carriers, which leads to an increase in the cost of transportation, or, if we need to deliver by rail, we in the need for long-term coordination with Russian Railways,” says Ms. Shlenskaya. “This is due to the lack of infrastructure for this category of cargo and the transfer of free space for containers in order to unload port terminals, as well as the development of a fastening scheme due to the lack of a single base of developed ready-made solutions” .

She also notes the shortage of qualified personnel and the necessary platforms for transportation, long periods of fastening and dispatch of goods by rail, parametric restrictions on oversized cargo when passing through railway tunnels on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

“The dimensions of cargo that can be transported by rail are limited by the gauge of the railway infrastructure (tunnels, bridges, and so on),” they say in Alfa Transit. “There is a basic loading gauge and ten degrees of exceeding it, and if your cargo exceeds the loading gauge JSC RZhD is insignificant, transportation by rail may still be profitable. If the dimensions of the cargo significantly exceed the main loading dimension, then the railway tariff may increase tenfold, or even transportation will be impossible.” In this regard, they explain, transportation of oversized cargo is mostly carried out by specialized vehicles, which have much fewer restrictions than the railway, but given the long distance between the Far East and the European part of the Russian Federation and the quality of roads, the cost of such delivery is still much higher than the cost of shipping by sea. The risks of violation of the safety of cargo are also increasing.

Russian Railways told Kommersant that there is demand for the transportation of imported oversized cargo from the Far East, “but it is insignificant against the background of the general dynamics of import cargo traffic from the ports of the Far East.”

Market participants note a shortage of equipment: Yulia Shlenskaya talks about a shortage of ships and cars, Vyacheslav Borodin – about an increase in the cost of acquiring tractors and semi-trailers and difficulties with spare parts. A separate problem is the shortage of specialized containers for the transportation of oversized cargo. “Such equipment (open top and flat rack containers) is quite expensive and, compared to standard containers, is in little demand, therefore, it is mainly owned by large shipping lines that are no longer represented in the Russian Federation,” Alfa Transit says. Ultimately, we have a situation where a large part of oversized and heavy cargo leaves as partial loading on ships of the break bulk vessel type (that is, without a container at all), since this is a real alternative to the still unstable new maritime container line services (and sometimes the only possible option)”.

The imbalance of containers at the beginning of 2022 led to a significant increase in the rental cost of specialized containers, which were usually used when transporting oversized cargo, Yulia Shlenskaya confirms. And with the departure of international container lines, this equipment has become practically inaccessible to forwarders. “Of course, we found a replacement and started using a bulk carrier fleet with cargo placed in the hold and on the deck of cargo ships,” she says.

Due to the increase in cargo traffic from China through the ports of the Far East, nearby border crossings are also saturated, they say in Alfa Transit. Due to the small throughput capacity at the main customs points, large queues are formed, which originated during the pandemic, due to the fact that only one checkpoint out of ten operates on the Chinese borders from time to time due to the introduction of quarantines, says Mr. Borodin. According to Mr. Rebelsky, today the most convenient border crossing in terms of clearance is Dunnin-Poltavka, however, due to weight restrictions on the A-187 road, not all oversized cargo can be transported there: “Therefore, out of the total number of oversized cargo that come from China, only a third goes through Dunning, the rest of the goods are trying to be transported through the Kazakh border crossings.”

Rates are currently rising in the Far East, says Mr. Borodin, due to increased supply and shortage of equipment, but they are growing disproportionately with rising costs, “since the depreciation component has doubled today compared to even the previous year, repair costs and service – more than doubled (if you take rubber or European spare parts, then for some items the price increase reaches a fivefold increase). Alfa Transit notes an increase in the cost and delivery time, which, depending on the direction and other factors, can range from 30% to 150%. In exceptional cases, the rise in price even exceeds 150%.

Natalya Skorlygina