-
2019 April 25
Oleg Belozerov, President of Russian Railways (RZD)
On competition between rail and inland transport
- We need to answer the main question: how can we all (all transport modes) build intermodality ... First question .. a global question: do we need the fleet? It seems like everyone would answer ‘sure we need the fleet’ - and all further conclusions are based on this. Let's go back, after all, to the question: do we need the fleet? And split the answer into several parts. The fleet is different. We see growing seaborne traffic - and it seems to me that maritime traffic needs its own set of measures that could potentially be used. Moreover, maritime transport carries different loads. For example, Sovcomflot builds ships and it seems to me ... that this is the best company and it operates within the existing legislation, both with profit, and losses, but it exists and it is a good, large, major company, there might be kind of a segment of certain transportation... Therefore, it seems to me that we should start with a goal.
Like the inland waterways. We have differences in comparison with China. As far as I understand, it is easier to sail along the river there, since there is not that much ice like we have here, maybe there is no ice at all, and accordingly, the operation of ships there is different... Therefore, as to the ‘do we need the fleet’ question - do we need inefficient fleet? Now, can we answer this question?
Let’s say I am an employee in oil industry and there are different modes of transport. And they want me to operate at a loss. We will never be able to enforce a private trader non-competitive measures. Because if we continue pushing on him, he will say, ‘Well, then why on earth should we stay and work in Russia with such environment, when you, apart from taxes and something else ... added the transportation that is not cost efficient at all... You have besieged us from all sides, but then compensate it somehow. For example, oil companies receive fuel cost excise tax back... But it seems to me that such non-commercial approaches, well, are unacceptable today. We need to find an option on how to make shipping more profitable...
We need to carry out comprehensive work and decide whether we need this mode of transport, after all? Maybe we should abandon shipping (of oil products by inland transport - Ed.). I know, it sounds a bit unacceptable, and I do not call for this right now, but we must raise this question that way. If we do not reach any economically advantageous conditions for oil product inland transportation, then maybe we should forget about this mode of transport? Actually, I do not really know, you know, may be we need to calculate the tariffs, to see what’s good and what’s bad. Moreover, in my understanding, in some cases, we, the Russian Railways, should ban, also sounds extraordinary, to have redundant infrastructure. What will be cheaper: to carry oil products by river ships in the summer season in the period when we perform overhaul of our rail infrastructure? I do not know how much there will be, definitely some volume, whether it’s heavy traffic or not, but there is exactly such a volume. Accordingly, either we must maintain the excessively large infrastructure that we need to invest into, take money from shippers, operators, or it would really be cheaper to move loads by river? This is the intermodality, complementing each mode, the country and the shippers from this approach should definitely get cost decline... That is, we should look for some options.
Further, the load on roads. In fact, the volume of construction cargo carried by railways is growing, it seems to me that the volume of this type of cargo transported by river vessels should also increase, since the regulations restricting transportation by trucks have been introduced and control there is more stringent. These things need to be compared.
Transcript of the meeting of the Commission of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) on transport and infrastructure development by the IAA PortNews.

-
2016 April 20
Vadim Morozov, member of Russian Railways BoD
On prospects of international railway service development
-
2015 April 27
First Vice-President of Russian Railways Vadim Morozov
On transport & logistic activities of Russian Railways
-
2018 March 19
Sergey Frank, President and CEO of Sovcomflot
On Sovcomflot 2017 results and market trends
-
2017 November 17
On providing RF-flagged ships with exclusive right to transport and store hydrocarbons in NSR waters
-
2017 October 27
Victor Olersky, Deputy Minister of Transport – head of Rosmorrechflot
On prospects of using LNG by Russian ships and measures undertaken by the Ministry in this respect
-
2019 December 11
https://worldmaritimenews.com
Iceland Bans Use of HFO in Its Waters
Iceland is pushing forward with its efforts to curb sulphur emissions in its waters in line with its climate action plan...Iceland Bans Use of HFO in Its Waters
-
2019 December 10
https://www.transportenvironment.org
Shipping company carrying your Christmas presents joins the EU’s top 10 polluters
A container shipping operator has joined coal plants and Ryanair in the EU’s list of top 10 carbon emitters, according to official emissions data...Shipping company carrying your Christmas presents joins the EU’s top 10 polluters
-
2019 December 5
https://www.sciencedaily.com
Finnish rivers transport сarbon to Baltic Sea at an increasing rate
The amount of carbon transported via Finnish rivers to the Baltic Sea has risen substantially in the past few decades...Finnish rivers transport сarbon to Baltic Sea at an increasing rate
-
2019 December 5
https://www.evwind.es
How to exploit offshore wind energy potential in Baltic Sea
In order to exploit the full potential of offshore wind power in the Baltic Sea, WindEurope’s Baltic Taskforce has released a new report...How to exploit offshore wind energy potential in Baltic Sea
-
2019 December 5
https://www.reuters.com
Delo acquires majority stake (50% + 2 shares) in TransContainer
Considered the "underdog" for the auction, Russia’s leading port container operator Delo has acquired the 50% + 2 shares controlling interest in Russia’s largest rail container operator TransContainer from the state-run railway monopoly Russian Railways...Delo acquires majority stake (50% + 2 shares) in TransContainer
-
2019 December 1
http://www.nor-shipping.com/
Diversity key to unlocking maritime sustainability
Despina Panayiotou Theodosiou, CEO of TOTOTHEO MARITIME and President of WISTA, argues that a changing world, with changing technology, demands a changing maritime workforce. Companies overlooking key groups of talent – based on gender, culture or ethnicity – will fail to evolve and adapt to the...Diversity key to unlocking maritime sustainability