Russian Railways are asked to extend the moratorium on the rules for the transportation of goods to the east

Russian Railways proposes to extend the suspension of the rules for non-discriminatory access (NPA, prioritize the transport of goods) to the railway infrastructure. Announced this on February 15, 2023 at a board meeting Russian Railways CEO of the monopoly Oleg Belozerov. This must be done, according to the top manager, “taking into account the introduction of priorities for the timber industry complex (TIC)”.

“The Company’s Proposed Temporary Priority Rules [грузов на сети РЖД] made it possible to ensure the stability of the transportation process while maintaining a balance of interests between the state and business,” Belozerov said.

The temporary rules that were adopted to replace the MPA in March 2022 are valid until July 1, 2023. In March, after the start of the NWO in Ukraine, the Russian government suspended the MPA. The goal is to unload the Eastern landfill (BAM and Transsib) from low-margin cargoes, primarily coal, which, under the terms of the IPA, had priority over higher-margin cargoes for Russian Railways goods (metals, oil products, containers, etc.). The competition between shippers for the capacity of the Eastern Landfill has intensified against the backdrop of new sanctions, which have forced exporters to change their supply chains and deploy deliveries from west to east.

At the end of January 2023, Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko’s Telegram channel reported that the government would support timber industry enterprises with their own raw material base and processing capacities. As one of the support measures, it was proposed to amend the temporary rules for determining the priority of transportation of goods by rail, giving priority to such enterprises (see Vedomosti, January 23). This idea was supported on February 10 by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting on the development of the timber industry.

Vedomosti sent a request to Russian Railways.

source close to Russian Railways, told Vedomosti that “most likely, the suspension of the IPA will be extended until the end of the year with the possibility of extending this period by another six months.” He also stressed that the acceptance of goods for transportation by rail “directly depends on the capabilities of the ports.” Therefore, to resume the PND now, in his opinion, “would be reckless.”

In the conditions of high loading of the Eastern test site, the issue of transportation planning is acute, and Russian Railways accepts cargoes taking into account the volumes of unloading in ports. For example, port facilities do not allow increasing the transportation of petroleum products. In the first week of February 2023 alone, the ports of the Far East rejected 14% of applications, Belozerov said on February 9 at a meeting with oil workers (this was reported in the Russian Railways Telegram channel). According to him, the terminals were not ready to transship even pre-agreed volumes. Because of this, the number of wagons with oil products on the public infrastructure, according to the general director of Russian Railways, now exceeds the standards by 2.5 times.

Independent industrial expert Maxim Shaposhnikov believes that in the current situation, Russian Railways is reacting to the government’s decision to support the timber industry complex and is trying to allocate a “transport corridor” to the east for timber processing products. “It is still premature to talk about the effectiveness of this measure,” he said.

The expert recalled that after the introduction of a ban on the export of round timber from the Russian Federation, sanctions and “trade wars” in 2022, the transportation of timber Russian Railways fell by 25% by 2021 and amounted to 31 million tons. Now Russian Railways is giving priority to higher marginal cargo, and coal companies are the first to suffer from this. In 2022, coal shipments from Kuzbass to the east fell by 5.5% to 53 million tons.

“The specific contribution of coal miners to income generation Russian Railways low, so ensuring the transportation of timber products will be a more urgent task,” Shaposhnikov explained.

Vedomosti sent inquiries to the press services of the largest shippers (metallurgists, coal miners, fertilizer producers and oil companies).

“The abolition of the PND makes it possible to expand the range of goods that follow through the Vostochny polygon,” Pavel Ivankin, president of the Transportation and Infrastructure Research Center, told Vedomosti. According to his estimates, the abolition of the IPA for another 12 months will allow Russian Railways “get” at least 30 billion rubles. at the end of 2023

Nadezhda Sintsova, Daria Savenkova participated in the preparation of the article