Transportation of car components to Uzbekistan are also promising
North-South international transport corridor (ITC) and a sea container line between China and Saint-Petersburg will contribute to logistics optimization through unloading of the eastern routes, IAA PortNews correspondent cites Irina Olkhovskaya, UMMC Director for Port and Rail Projects, as saying at the 31st plenary session of the International Coordinating Council on Trans-Eurasian Transportation (CCTT).
According to the expert, the traditional Vladivostok – Yekaterinburg - Saint-Petersburg route has a number of problems: acute shortage of the Eastern Polygon capacity, excess of imports over exports, need to transport empty fitting platforms, idle time spent by ships due to overloading of port infrastructure. Meanwhile, accumulation of empty containers aggravates at the facilities of transport and logistics centers. The use of the North-South ITC and the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas could be a solution. It takes 49-59 days to deliver cargo by this route from China to Saint-Petersburg (versus 40-45 days by the traditional route). However, that makes the capacity of the Eastern Polygon available for export cargo, lets optimize the logistics of empty and loaded containers and also contributes to the development of the North-South ITC while decreasing operation losses due to building up the traffic volume.
Yet another promising solution is the organization of a container line between Shanghai and Saint-Petersburg. It is comparable with the traditional route but requires fewer transshipment operations and border crossings while contributing to unloading of the eastern routes and increasing the loading of the excessive container facilities in Saint-Petersburg.
“The potential of this corridor (North-South ITC - Ed.) is underestimated. It is great since we see that the key logistics points to take over container cargo flows are Saint-Petersburg, Moscow hub and Yekaterinburg. Today, the ships are waiting for unloading for over 13-14 days (not only container ships, but all ships in general). That means a great load on the economy and the railways which is to intensify. Therefore, when we compare the traditional route with the new ones we see the potential of using the Deep Sea route and the port of Bandar Abbas for logistics optimization,” says Irina Olkhovskaya.
The expert mentioned one more potential route – that for transportation of car components to Uzbekistan. “It has a good potential. Yes, multimodal logistics is to be developed but the current situation makes us look for the optimal solutions,” says Irina Olkhovskaya.
The volume of Russian cargo transported by the North-South ITC is expected to double by 2030, from the current 17 million tonnes to 32 million tonnes. The Baku Declaration dated 9 September 2022 states that the throughput capacity of the corridor’s western route is to increase from the current 9 million tonnes to at least 15 million tonnes by 2030.
North-South international transport corridor (ITC) is a 7,200-kilometre-long transport artery from St Petersburg to ports in Iran and India. North-South ITC has a western and an eastern branch, both running across Iran. The western one foresees cargo transportation by road via Rasht, the eastern one – by railway. The end point in Iran is the port of Bandar Abbas from which cargo can be delivered to India by sea. The western branch also crosses Azerbaijan, the eastern one – Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Besides, direct water transportation from Russia to Iran by the Caspian Sea is possible.
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