Russian Railways undertakes to transport at least 53.1 million tonnes of Kuzbass coal
Sergey Tsivilyov, Governor of the Kemerovo Region, and Oleg Belozerov, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of Russian Railways, have signed a supplementary agreement to the document on cooperation in railway transportation of the Kemerovo Region products in 2019-2035. The Kemerovo Region is to provide and Russian Railways is to transport at least 53.1 million tonnes of export coal in the eastward direction. Indicative volumes of Kuzbass coal to be transported via the Eastern Polygon under the supplementary agreement is 55.1 million tonnes, according to the regional government.
According to the Coal Industry Ministry of the Kemerovo Region, Kuzbass companies shipped 183 million tonnes of coal in January-November 2022 (-10%, year-on-year). 90.9 million tonnes were shipped westwards (-15.2 million tonnes); 47.9 million tonnes - eastwards (-3.3 million tonnes); 44.2 million tonnes – internal transportation (-2.5 million tonnes).
In October 2022, Minister of Transport Vitaly Savelyev said that the Government of the Russian Federation started cutting coal production due to limited capacity of the Eastern Polygon.
The Eastern Polygon of Russian railways includes the Trans-Siberian Railway (Transsib, 9,300 km long) and the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM, 4,300 km long). According to Russian Railways, throughput of the Eastern Polygon in 2022 is to exceed 150 million tonnes, up 4%, year-on-year.
In pursuance of the presidential order, modernization of the Eastern Polygon will let increase the capacity of railways to the Far East seaports and border checkpoints to 180 million tonnes by 2024.
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