Only 57% of Russia’s port facilities were loaded in 2021 with their excess capacity making 140.5 million tonnes, IAA PortNews correspondent cites Irina Olkhovskaya, UMMC Director for Port and Rail Projects, as saying at the Argus Russian Coal 2022. CIS and Global Markets conference. According to the presentation of UMMC, the gap between actual shipments which totaled 186.7 million tonnes and the available capacity has increased considerably over the recent three years.
“Excess capacity is registered everywhere. In the Far East, underloading totaled 74 million tonnes in 2021. Further development of coal industry and ports will depend on implementation of Russian Railways’ investment programme”, emphasized the expert.
According to Irina Olkhovskaya, resource base of Kuzbass, Khakasia and Yakutia is sufficient for a full loading of sea terminals. “When implementing their projects on construction of new terminals, investors were expecting implementation of programmes on development of railway infrastructure. Phase I of the project on expanding the capacity of the Eastern Operating Domain (EOD) was to be completed back in 2017. However, the completion was postponed twice, to 2019 and to 2020. The most challenging situation is at the Khabarovsk-Smolyaninovo-Nakhodka section”, told the expert when answering a question on what caused the excess of terminals’ excess capacity.
The loss of Vostochny Port (a terminal of UMMC) from underloading of its facilities totaled 86.5 million tonnes over the recent three years. In 2021, the terminal handled 25.5 million tonnes.
The loss of Rosterminalugol (Leningrad Region based terminal of UMMC) – 13.3 million tonnes. In 2021, the terminal failed to recover its pre-pandemic results and 23.8 million tonnes, 3 million tonnes less than in 2020.
Meanwhile, UMMC counts on the coal market growth in 2025-2030 with the completion of major phases of Russian Railways’ investment programme.
In the beginning of 2022, Russian coal companies faced insufficiency of railway capacity at the approaches to the North-Western ports, which threatens with nonfulfillment of deliveries to European customers. Read more in IAA PortNews’ article ” Russian coal hindered on its way to Europe”
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