The railway has been traditionally considered as a ‘killer’ of river transport. However today when Russian Railways announces the plans to revise its long-term tariff policy and amid a too slow development of railway infrastructure, water routes are in the spotlight again.

Without additional railway capacity it will be hard for Russia’s new coal terminals to reach break-even point. At the same time, their introduction will affect the economy of the existing coal ports. Insufficient capacity of Russian Railways is detrimental for both old and new market players.

In his interview with IAA PortNews, Yury Gilts, General Director of Volga Shipping Company JSC (Volga-Flot JSC), tells about bunker fuel prices, new types of bunker fuel, chemical cargo carriers and retrofitting of tankers.

The pandemic implications in the shipping industry, cancellation of visas for Russian seafarers with the Russian shelf and the Northern Sea Route for only Russian-flagged ships is foreseen by the strategy defined at the 9th Congress of the Seafarers' Union of Russia for the coming 5 years. Among the prime tasks of the organization is attraction of young people. Holders of cadet cards can join the Seafarers Union.

Following our earlier insight into the prospects of hydrofoils we will now focus on hovercraft, another promising segment in domestic and global shipbuilding.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) earlier considered as the optimal alternative to meet the environmental standards for marine fuels is now viewed only as a transition solution. The length of LNG term and other fuels to replace it were in the focus of the 5th LNG Fleet, LNG Bunkering and Alternatives conference organized by IAA PortNews.

Although 9M’2021 throughput of Russian ports climbed by almost 2%, handling of Russia’s foreign trade cargo in the ports of Finland and the Baltic states decreased. Nevertheless, Russia loaded foreign terminals with more oil products, coal, grain and ferrous metal.

In almost 10 month of the year, cargo turnover on inland water ways of the Azov-Don Basin decreased by 1 million tonnes versus the same period of 2020. Transportation of agricultural goods and sulphur has reduced by almost a half with the decrease demonstrated by other types of cargo as well.

The third quarter of 2021 was marked by an energy crisis both in Europe and in China. No wonder it boosted exports of crude oil, oil products and coal from Russian ports.

ESG practices are getting increasingly crucial for companies including those in the water transport segment which can actually gain from it.