What's coming for railroad freight transportation?

Statistics show that from January to April 2022, the railroad transported 1985.8 thousand TEU of containerized cargo. This is 7.5% more than in the corresponding period of 2021. It should be taken into account that we are talking about the average indicator for the period, and this increase was at the expense of the first two months. In April, the volume decreased by 3.6% per day in relation to January, February 2022. Exports decreased by 7.4% or 0.3 thousand TEU/d, while transit decreased by 28.8% or 0.8 thousand TEU/d. Obviously, the negative dynamics will continue. At present, a number of measures are being introduced to curb the decline. Among the most significant are: * agreement with Chinese railroads to increase cargo traffic through the Zabaikalsk - Manchuria IACP; * increased passage of accelerated container trains by doubling back and forth train traffic; * reorientation of exports towards the Eastern polygon; * change of routes in the direction of Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Turkey; * increase in the volume of container transportation through the ITC, “North-South” in communication with Iran and India; * increase in transportation in the Russian domestic traffic due to the growth of production aimed at import substitution (in March 2022 the growth of such transportation amounted to 9.8% against March 2021).

Quite a lot of measures are implemented to support and increase the turnover of railway transportation:

1) Changes in the tariff policy of Russian Railways: - slowing down the rate of tariff indexation; - changing the coefficient to slow down the tariff burden with the growth of transportation distance; - preferential tariff for the transportation of loaded refrigerated containers.

2) Development of railway infrastructure: - development of railway checkpoint infrastructure; - construction of new transshipment facilities at container processing stations; - formation of a network of transport and logistics centers; - conversion of universal port terminals from coal transshipment to container processing.

3) Solving the issues of container deficit: - purchase of containers from Russian manufacturers (Abakanvagonmash, Kemerovokhimmash, Uralvagonzavod, Baltic Container, Energomash, Spetskontainer); - multiple use of foreign containers within the period of temporary importation; - creation of a unified system for monitoring the dislocation of containers on the territory of Russia. 4) Control and documentation measures: - the rules of cargo transportation priority were approved, the priority of organizing the export of cargoes that provide a significant contribution to GDP was raised; - partial agreements on seamless cargo movement across the border with China and Mongolia were implemented; - customs clearance at railway checkpoints was simplified.

Some of the described measures have been implemented to a large extent, while the other part is at the stage of preparation and implementation. In general, regarding the immediate prospects of the situation, I believe that if the world agreements are not directed towards normalization of relations between the countries, it is hardly worth waiting for positive dynamics. As for JML, we have accepted all the difficulties of the current situation and continue to do what we can - to do our job with conscience. Management's support of employees, enthusiasm and in-depth analysis of information allow us to retain customers and realize stable volumes of transported cargoes. We look forward to the future with hope, but we try to rely on real facts when assessing the present.